Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
You know the name Harper Lee, but what about Therese von Hohoff Torrey? Also known as Tay Hohoff, the woman whose name is a mouthful helped streamline and refine Harper Lee's writing between her initial writing of Go Set a Watchman and her publication of To Kill a Mockingbird. She's the most important person in literature you don't know about. (Source)
Who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird? Literary conspiracy theories lean toward Harper Lee's friend, and inspiration for Dill, Truman Capote. The release of Go Set a Watchman gives the world some of Harper Lee's writing in its rawest form. (If she wrote that book! But that's another conspiracy theory for another day.) Data miners analyzed Watchman, Mockingbird, and two of Capote's classics, reaching some interesting conclusions that don't definitively prove authorship, but do show us amazing things about the writing process. (Source)
How many of you read the first chapter of Go Set a Watchman and thought, "Who really wrote this?! E.L. James?!" Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Goodreads reviewer Ian Klappenskoff re-writes Watchman's first chapter as if it were written by the Fifty Shades wordsmith. Strangely, it's not all that different. (Source)
In Go Set a Watchman, Jean Louise asks herself WWAFD, or What Would Atticus Finch Do? But we find ourselves asking WWGPD, or What Would Gregory Peck Do? Peck's Oscar-winning portrayal of Atticus Finch is almost inseparable from the literary figure. Peck's son believes the "new" book would have Peck conflicted, if he were alive today. (Source)
We'd never think to compare Go Set a Watchman to Superman II, but writer Jim Bennett did. No, he isn't comparing Atticus to Superman—that's probably been done—but he's calling both Watchman and a director's cut of Superman II, not a sequel, but a "commentary" on the original. (Source)