If you write to notoriously media-shy To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee seeking an autographed photograph, you’re not going to get one. But you might well get something far more valuable from the affable correspondent, as a young man named Jeremy learned when he wrote to Lee in 2006. Although the writer claimed not to have any photos of herself, she did provide a short paragraph of advice in its place: “As you grow up, always tell the truth, do no harm to others, and don’t think you are the most important being on earth,” Lee wrote. Read her wise words in the handwritten letter after the jump, and visit Letters of Note for the transcription. … Read More

We imagine that Harper Lee still gets quite a bit of fan mail, despite the fact that her only novel was published over 50 years ago. But we’re also fairly sure that the To Kill a Mockingbird author, one of the most reclusive writers of the 20th century, hasn’t made a habit of answering it. That’s why it’s such a treat to see a typewritten response from Lee to a fan’s letter about the book, sent only a few months after the novel’s publication in 1960. The brief message addresses a fellow Alabaman’s inquiry about the fictionalized places in the book. “You ask me where Maycomb County is, where the Landing is — the only answer I can give you is that Maycomb County is in my heart and the Landing is in my imagination,” Lee writes. She also includes a playful (and entirely unilluminating) sketch of Maycomb County. See a photo of the letter after the jump; if you have ample disposable income, you can bid on it here. … Read More