'When Harper Lee said no, she meant it': Oprah Winfrey reveals Mockingbird author turned down chat show invite... over lunch that took TWO YEARS to arrange

  • Oprah spent two years trying to secure a meeting with Harper Lee
  • She finally snagged a lunch date with the author in New York
  • However, Lee said 'no' to Oprah's TV interview request
  • Revealed details as Lee's second Mockingbird novel released

Oprah Winfrey has managed to snag on-air interviews with some of the world's biggest stars, from President Obama to Michael Jackson.

But the 61-year-old media mogul has revealed that she was unable to persuade her literary idol, Harper Lee - whose hotly-anticipated second novel, Go Set A Watchman, was released at midnight - to appear on her eponymous chat show.

At a lunch date with Lee at the luxury Four Seasons in New York during the Nineties, the author apparently compared herself to the introverted, reclusive character of Boo Radley - therefore, appearing on TV would be a complete no-no.

Turned down: Oprah Winfrey  has revealed that she was unable to persuade her literary idol, Harper Lee, to appear on her eponymous chat show
Turned down: Oprah Winfrey  has revealed that she was unable to persuade her literary idol, Harper Lee, to appear on her eponymous chat show

Turned down: Oprah Winfrey has revealed that she was unable to persuade her literary idol, Harper Lee, to appear on her eponymous chat show

Fans wait outside a Foyles book store in London  to purchase 'Go Set A Watchman' that went on sale at midnight

Fans wait outside a Foyles book store in London  to purchase 'Go Set A Watchman' that went on sale at midnight

Winfrey recalled that despite becoming 'instant girlfriends' with Lee, the Alabama-native was 'not going to be convinced at all'.

The notoriously private author apparently already struggled with the personal attention her original 1960 bestseller had attracted and didn't wish for any more fame.

It even took Winfrey more than two years to negotiate a private meeting with Lee, thanks to incessant calls between her staff and the writer's agent.

In an excerpt from Scout, Atticus & Boo: A Celebration of To Kill A Mockingbird by Mary McDonagh Murphy, Winfrey remembers respecting Lee's decision to stay away from the cameras. 

Harper Lee's unexpected new novel offers an unexpected and startling take on an American literary saint, Atticus Finch
Watchman was written before the 89-year-old's celebrated To Kill A Mockingbird and is only her second book

Hot reads: Watchman was written before To Kill A Mockingbird but is set two decades afterwards

She didn't record audio during the lunch date and instead sat back and 'enjoyed' the rare encounter. 

THE OPENING SCENES OF GO SET A WATCHMAN

In the first chapter of Harper Lee's second published novel we meet Jean Louise Finch - aka Scout - as she travels back to her home state of Alabama from New York to visit her ageing father, Atticus.

Disembarking at Maycomb she looks for her father who is not there, as expected, to meet her. Instead, she meets Henry Clinton, who grabs her in a 'bear hug' and 'kissed her hard on the mouth, then kissed her gently.'

Clinton, we learn, is a 'comrade' of her brother Jem and a potential husband for Jean. During a playful exchange as they drive away from the station, she rejects his marriage proposal despite there being 'no finer man' in Maycomb.

He worked for Atticus, who is increasingly suffering with rheumatoid arthritis. Atticus took Clinton under his wing after Scout's brother Jem 'dropped dead in his tracks.'

The chapter ends with Scout apologising for upsetting Clinton during the car journey as she ponders silently whether she could be his wife. 

The media mogul continued: '[Lee] said to me: "I already said everything I needed to say. Already we have those buses coming down to my house, and they pull up to the door still looking for Boo Radley, and I just don’t want that to happen any more than it already does.

'If you know Boo, then you understand why I wouldn’t be doing an interview. Because I am really Boo.'

Winfrey continued: '[Lee] said no, and I knew that no meant no. Sometimes no means, "Hmm, let us see what else you have to say." But when Harper Lee said no, I knew that was the end of it. I just enjoyed the lunch.'

Winfrey said she read To Kill A Mockingbird in eighth or ninth grade and it had a profound impact on her life as she struggled with race and class growing up as a 'southern woman' in Tennessee. 

She recalled putting on an accent and trying to imitate the young female narrator, Scout.

In 1962, when the To Kill A Mockingbird film was released, Winfrey said she was equally enthralled by the story.

No doubt, Winfrey will have been eagerly awaiting the release of Lee's Go Set A Watchman.

The book, written before Lee's only published novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, in the mid-1950s focuses on many of the same characters some 20 years later.

The 89-year-old's attorney, Tonja Carter, said she stumbled upon the unpublished manuscript in a safety deposit box last year. 

Harper Lee, 89, is shown the front cover of her new book by filmmaker Mary McDonagh Murphy on June 30

Harper Lee, 89, is shown the front cover of her new book by filmmaker Mary McDonagh Murphy on June 30

Flashback: Actor Gregory Peck  and novelist  Harper Lee on the movie set of To Kill A Mockingbird in 1962

Flashback: Actor Gregory Peck and novelist Harper Lee on the movie set of To Kill A Mockingbird in 1962

HarperCollins announced the news of the second Lee novel in February, something her fans had given up on and Lee had previously said wouldn't happen, and has seen record-high pre-orders - the highest since the last Harry Potter book that came out in 2007.

 The way I felt about being turned down is exactly the way I felt about Jackie Onassis

Questions were raised over the quality of the book - and indeed over whether Lee was capable of making decisions about publishing the novels, leading to Alabama officials to visit her in her care home.  

The portrait of Atticus, a supposed liberal revealing crude prejudices, is likely to re-energise an old debate about Mockingbird.

In an interview earlier this year, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison called it a 'white savior' narrative, 'one of those' that reduced black people to onlookers in their own struggle for equal rights. 

Growing pains: Winfrey (pictured as a young woman) said To Kill A Mockingbird had a profound impact on her life as she struggled with race and class as a 'southern woman' in Tennessee

Growing pains: Winfrey (pictured as a young woman) said To Kill A Mockingbird had a profound impact on her life as she struggled with race and class as a 'southern woman' in Tennessee

In the sequel, Finch is sensationally depicted as a racist 'bigot' who once attended a Ku Klux Klan meeting.

The now 70-something Finch asks his daughter: 'Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools and churches and theaters? Do you want them in our world?'

The revelation has left fans baffled. Some declared their childhoods had been ruined by the news - with some saying they will refuse to read the new book by way of protest.

Oprah, who once described Mockingbird as 'our national novel,' says she has no future plans to interview Lee and is glad the writer has managed to retain some sense of anonymity.

A woman thumbs her copy after getting her hands on the eagerly awaited book, written in the 1950s

A woman thumbs her copy after getting her hands on the eagerly awaited book, written in the 1950s

Staff wheel through a trolley carrying stacks of the novel which went on sale at midnight on Monday

Staff wheel through a trolley carrying stacks of the novel which went on sale at midnight on Monday

She concluded: 'The way I felt about being turned down is exactly the way I felt about [Jackie] Onassis. 

'In the end, I was glad she didn’t do it, that she was able to hold on to that for herself.' 

Last night shops across the UK opened at midnight to honour the release of Go Set A Watchman with readers queuing up for hours to get their hands on the first copies.

Waterstones flagship store in London's Piccadilly hosted a series of talks about the classic novel and screened the 1962 film version.

Its shops also turned orange today, the colour of the book's cover, while Britain's largest independent chain Foyles had a 'Southern-themed' midnight opening at its flagship London store on Charing Cross Road.

Scout, Atticus & Boo: A Celebration of to Kill A Mockingbird by Mary McDonagh Murphy is published by Arrow for £7.99 

 GO SET A WATCHMAN: CRITICS AND FANS OFFER THEIR FIRST REVIEWS

While critics were qualified in their praise of the first chapter, reaction among fans was largely centered on the anguish at finding out that Jem, a treasured character from 'Mockingbird', had been killed off.

Guardian Books editor Claire Armistead told BBC Radio 4 that while it was 'really difficult' to say how the rest of the book would read, she found the first chapter of Go Set A Watchman 'promising'.

'What it sets up is lots of fascinating scenarios,' she said. 

'The childhood friendships have gone... Obviously Scout has a romantic association with the black community which I suspect is going to really develop. 

'It has also got a nice line in irony. It has this line: "Recorded history’s version does not coincide with the truth, but these are the facts, because [they were passed down by word of mouth through the years] and every Maycombian knows them."

'So it is sort of setting up the idea of a reality that doesn’t accord with the facts. And I think it is actually really promising.'

Readers took to Twitter to express their dismay that Jem had been killed off in the years between the setting of 'Mockingbird' and Go Set A Watchman.

Manuel Soto wrote: 'Boycotting 'GoSetAWatchman' because of Jem', and twitter user @fenwench said: 'Harper Lee killed off Jem Finch. My day is ruined #GoSetAWatchman'

Others enjoyed the book more. Alexander Woolf wrote on Twitter: 'The first chapter of the new Harper Lee book is wonderful! "If you did not want much, there was plenty." Beautiful.'

Kieron Butler said: 'Well, the first chapter of #GoSetAWatchman has me hooked. Beautiful to read, funny and profoundly moving.' 

 

Reviews from the public: Most reacted positively to the first chapter, although some expressed dismay that Jem had been killed off

Reviews from the public: Most reacted positively to the first chapter, although some expressed dismay that Jem had been killed off

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