Afternoons with Harper Lee, Wayne Flynt
Afternoons with Harper Lee, Wayne Flynt
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Afternoons with Harper Lee

Author: Wayne Flynt

Narrator: Chris Abernathy

Unabridged: 7 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/29/2023


Synopsis

Imagine sitting with an esteemed writer on his or her front porch somewhere in the world and swapping life stories. Dr. Wayne Flynt got the opportunity to do just this with Nelle Harper Lee. In a friendship that blossomed over a dozen years starting when Lee relocated back to Alabama after having had a stroke, Flynt and his wife Dartie became regular visitors at the assisted living facility that was Lee's new home. And there the conversation began, with an invitation to "Come in, sit down, and stay a while."

The stories exchanged ranged widely over the topics of Alabama history, Alabama folklore, family genealogy, and American literature, of course. Wayne and his wife were often joined by Alice Lee, the oldest Lee sister, a living encyclopedia on the subject of family genealogy, and middle sister Louise Lee Conner.

The hours spent visiting, in intimate closeness, are still cherished by Wayne Flynt. They yielded revelations large and small, which have been shaped into Afternoons with Harper Lee. Part memoir, part biography, this book offers a unique window into the life and mind and preoccupations of one of America's best-loved writers. Flynt and Harper Lee and her sisters learned a great deal from each other, and though this is not a history book, their shared interest in Alabama and its history made this extraordinary work possible.

About Wayne Flynt

Wayne Flynt is a southern historian and educator who retired after teaching for decades at Auburn University, where he directed more than sixty graduate programs. He has lectured at Sichuan University in China, at Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the universities of Newcastle, Oxford, Cambridge, and Sussex in Great Britain, at the Franklin Roosevelt Center in the Netherlands, and at the University of Vienna. He is the author of fourteen books dealing with Southern politics, history, white poverty, and culture (religion, art, music, literature). His numerous awards include the Rembert Patrick Award for Florida History, the Lillian Smith Prize for nonfiction from the Southern Regional Council, the Alabama Library Association Award for nonfiction (three times), the C. Vann Woodward/John Hope Franklin Prize by the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum Award for Excellence in Writing, a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize (1989), and the Alabama Governor's Award for the Arts.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Janilyn on October 15, 2022

I was eager to read this book, hoping to learn more about the enigmatic Harper Lee. While I did learn more about her solitary life in elderly age, I was disappointed. I felt as if the author was cashing in on his friendship with Lee, while announcing he wouldn’t divulge anything too revealing about he......more

Goodreads review by Stephen on October 30, 2022

At its best, Afternoons is a friend's biography of Harper Lee, considering her life and the meaning of her published works; at its worse, it is an unorganized jumble of anecdotes that often wander astray from the focus of the book -- and not in the artful way of southern storytelling, but in the 'eh......more

Goodreads review by Brent on October 16, 2022

This was a good book. I would not say it was great, but it was good. The author, Dr. Wayne Flynt, is probably Auburn University's most well known history professor. The book is a great deal about Dr. Flynt in addition to Harper Lee. Dr. Flynt and his wife got to know Ms. Lee through her sisters. The......more

Goodreads review by Grace on July 07, 2023

I loved the idea of this book, but a piece of me felt uncomfortable. I found myself trying to rationalize and moralize the idea of writing this book about Wayne Flynt’s friend who was incredibly private with the way she lived her life. I would say, “Well, this is history. He’s telling history as he......more

Goodreads review by Mary on December 19, 2022

I have a fascination for Harper Lee's life and love to read any fresh insights on it. This book did provide yet another insider's view on the writer's personality. It was especially poignant to read about the later years of her life and how that affected her. The focus of the work tended to be on th......more