July 2013 Auction Ends Tuesday, July 23rd, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/23/2013
Harper Lee typed letter signed, dated 25 August 1990, referencing classic American authors. Lee heaps praise on Alabama writer Elise Sanguinetti ''...And speaking of Alabama writers, to my mind the finest we have is Elise Sanguinetti. If you don't know her novels, read them. She was Elise Ayers, daughter of Col. Harry Ayers who published the Anniston star and was prominent in Alabama affairs for years. She is married to Phil Sanguinetti and still lives in Anniston. Of all of Hudson Strode's writing students, she is most gifted-- indeed, she never needed to go to writing class. Like Jane Austen and Eudora Welty, she never left home, and like them she can see the whole world within a radius of eight miles. What is more, her settings are contemporary, or as contemporary as our future-shock culture can enable them to be. It seems that one of the hardest things in the world (and especially in the case of Southerners) is to produce, in the midst of social revolution, work of lasting worth [edit] which reflects the revolution. (The Grapes of Wrath is an example.) In the Last of the Whitfield's and McBee's Station her characters experience the uncertainty, fears, dread of change that were rife among white people at the time the books were written, and to this day, over twenty-five years later, they are still contemporary. Elise is as funny as hell, she has a laser-beam eye, and her ear for Alabama speech amounts to perfect pitch. What more can I say except that, like some Leapards I know, she is a life-enhancer...Love ever, [Signed] Harper.'' Lee writes a note below in blue pen, ''Sorry about the scratchy typing - my typewriter sticks from the humidity.'' The two page 8.5'' x 11'' letter is in fine condition stapled to the original envelope.
Harper Lee Typed Letter Signed Praising Alabama Writer -- ''...in the midst of social revolution, work of lasting worth which reflects that revolution. (The Grapes of Wrath is an example.)...''
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