Harper Lee

It's fun to have your six minutes of fame, even if it comes second hand through your best friend and Bestest gives me lots of that.

As a life long reader of books I am in awe of the people who write them, and sometimes the people within them.

As a professor of southern literature, Bestest was called up to voice his thoughts and opinions when Harper Lee's "Go Set A Watchman" came out last year. We both loved "To Kill A Mockingbird" as do millions of people world wide and a chance to read a second novel by that book's author was a real treat.

Today we were talking on the phone when he heard that Harper Lee died in her sleep this morning. It was a moment of profound sadness for many reasons.  A truly wonderful human being, one who wasn't afraid to say what she thought and say it in a way that captivated the world, died today.

He has been inundated with phone calls, questions and interviews all day and although part of me is very proud that he is the one so many people turned to, I am feeling a loss I know will not be filled by anyone else in quite the same way. This is one link to fame I would willingly have given up and so would he.

We can continue to talk about her and Atticus Finch, but unless she has hidden away other manuscripts, our chance to know more about him, or his creator, will depend on people like Bestest who can talk about them with more authority than most and who have a love for them that is pretty much relegated to those of us who love good books.

As a avid lover of the movie, "To Kill A Mockingbird," as a woman who loved the way Harper Lee lived, and as a reader who gobbled up every word she allowed in print, I am sad to see Harper Lee leave this world.