Ana Lovejoy
Administrador
Harper Lee elder abuse investigation is closed, says agent
Harper Lee’s agent has said that
Alabama state’s investigation into the writer’s mental health is “closed”, reiterating that the much-loved writer is in “full possession of her mental faculties”.
In a statement issued on Friday, Andrew Nurnberg, who has been Lee’s foreign-rights agent for two years, said he was “surprised to hear that someone had, anonymously, approached the authorities in Alabama to suggest that Harper Leewas being subjected to ‘elder abuse’”.
“Nelle could not be better cared for in the residential home where she lives. To suggest otherwise, anonymously and without any supportive evidence, is as shameful as it is sad,” said Nurnberg. “We should rather celebrate the fortuitous discovery of this long-lost novel and share the author’s joy at its imminent appearance.”
The statement comes in the wake of renewed speculation about Lee’s state of mind, after it emerged that two agencies in Alabama were investigating the situation, interviewing the author and acquaintances to see whether she was competent to make decisions over publication.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that the Alabama Department of Human Resources was looking into Lee’s condition, with the help of the Alabama Securities Commission.
The Securities Commission announced on Thursday night that it had closed its investigation, issuing the statement: “We made a determination that Ms Lee, based on our interview with her, was aware that her book was going to be published. She wanted it published. She made it quite clear she did.”
But the Department of Human Resources would not confirm or deny the existence of any investigation to the Guardian, nor to the New York Times. But a friend and neighbor of Lee’s told the Guardian that he had been interviewed by an investigator from the Department of Human Resources, asking him if he had any reason to believe Lee was being maltreated in the decision to publish her new book. “I cannot say that they [HRD] have closed it but I do not see any action going on,” he said.
Joseph Borg, director of the Alabama Securities Commission, told the Guardian on Friday that his office had been brought into the investigation by the Human Resources Department to examine any financial wrongdoing, and while his office had closed its file on the case that did not mean that the entire investigation had been closed.
Borg sent a small team of investigators from his office to interview Lee in person in her assisted living facility in Monroeville. He declined to say how many or to release details of what Lee said, all of which will be in a subsequent report resulting from the inquiry.
“Our initial review has to do with whether or not Miss Lee is cogent, she knew what was going on and wanted her book published. She replied in the affirmative and said she was not making any complaint to us, so we do not need to inquire further,” Borg told the Guardian.
An official who was briefed on the meeting between financial investigators and Lee said: “She asked direct questions. She gave very strong answers. She is a very strong and direct little lady. She lets you know what she is thinking and she wants the book published. She was quite clear, quite emphatic.”
The interview with Lee was described as “friendly”. The official was not prepared to reveal what Lee actually said, but added that although she is profoundly deaf, she communicates well in writing.
“Her hearing is impaired. You have to write questions out, but she writes back, or write on a chalk board. She reads perfectly well,” the official said.
“Having spent quality time with her over the last couple of years,” Nurnberg said in his statement, “I can categorically state that she is in full possession of her mental faculties.”
The two have had “wonderful discussions” on everything from politics to university life in England, he added. “The fact that she is hard of hearing and suffers from some macular degeneration (entirely common for someone in their late 80s) has no bearing whatsoever on her quick wit, or of speaking her mind on all manner of things. That she chose many years ago to lead a quiet life away from the world at large (the last time she spoke to the press was, I believe, in 1964) is her prerogative and should be respected,” he said.
Lee was “surprised”, said Nurnberg, when Tonja Carter – her “dear friend and lawyer”, the author had previously called her in a statement – stumbled across the manuscript of Go Set a Watchman, the novel which imagines her character Scout as an adult.
But she is “both delighted and enthused that it will now be published”, said Nurnberg. “Contrary to certain press reports, it was not ‘rejected’ at the time: her putative editor – having read Go Set a Watchman – persuaded her to write Scout’s story through the eyes of a child, and the plan was to write a short novel to act as a bridge to Go Set A Watchman. This is clear from documentation at the time, which I have seen. This bridging book was never written but, as readers will find, it is not necessary to understand how Scout, her father, her extended family and the politics of segregation in the mid-50s evolved.”
