Unsealing of will only deepens mystery of Mockingbird author
Harper Lee’s literary assets up in the air
When novelist Harper Lee died in her sleep two years ago, at 89, she left a trail of lingering questions about her life and work.
Why had she decided, in her final years, to publish a second novel, 55 years after her breakout success, To Kill a Mockingbird? Were there other unknown works? Who would inherit her literary papers, sought by many universities, as well as her estate, estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars?
On Tuesday, an Alabama court unsealed Lee’s will, but the mystery surrounding one of American literature’s most cherished authors only deepened.
The will, signed on February 11, 2016, eight days before her death, directed that the bulk of her assets, including her literary properties, be transferred into a trust she formed in 2011.
Trust documents are private, so all questions about what will become of her literary papers and who beyond her closest relatives might benefit from her assets, will remain unanswered for now.
It is also unclear how the will differed from any prior document Lee may have created to distribute her assets.
Lee never married or had children, and the court papers identified her heirs and closest living relatives as a niece and three nephews, who are expected to receive an undisclosed portion of the estate through the trust.
The will named Tonja B. Carter, Lee’s longtime lawyer, as the executor, or personal representative, of the estate, and it provided her with wide-ranging powers to shepherd Lee’s literary legacy and the rest of her assets.
Carter had gone to court in 2016 to successfully persuade Probate Judge Greg Norris of Monroe County to seal the will, citing Lee’s desire for privacy. And while the estate had stressed in court papers that making the will public could lead to the “potential harassment” of individuals identified in it, the document itself is strikingly opaque.
It was unsealed Tuesday on the basis of a lawsuit filed by The New York Times seeking to review the document. Lawyers for The Times argued that wills filed in a probate court in Alabama are typically public records, and that Lee’s privacy concerns were no different from those of others whose wills are processed through the court system.
“It’s a public record, and the press and the public have a right to public records,” said Archie Reeves, the lawyer who represented The Times.
Last week, as both sides prepared to depose witnesses, the estate withdrew its opposition to making the will public. It did not disclose its reasoning.
The document’s lack of transparency will likely fuel skepticism among those who feel that Carter had amassed too much power over Lee’s career and legacy. The will gives Carter substantial control over Lee’s estate and her literary properties, which are assigned to the Mockingbird Trust, an entity that was formed in 2011. Carter served as one of its two trustees at the time.
“It is not an uncommon will, and it is typically what we term a pour- over will where anything in the estate goes over to the trust and they don’t have to disclose the terms of the trust,” said Sidney C. Summey, an estate and trusts lawyer in Birmingham. “It is done quite often by people of means, people with notoriety and people who just want to be private,” Summey said.
Lee’s relatives had supported efforts to seal the will. Phone calls to reach several members of her family were unsuccessful.
As a personal representative, Carter is entitled to compensation for her work. The will allows the personal representative to earn additional fees as part of an organization, like a law firm, that does work for the estate.
Carter declined to discuss the will, citing Lee’s penchant for privacy. “I will not discuss her affairs,” she said.
One of the two witnesses to the will, Cynthia McMillan, a former resident assistant who had helped care for Lee at a facility where she had lived, said in an interview that Lee seemed cogent when she signed it. “In my opinion, she was,” McMillian said.
The estate was built largely on the outsize and enduring success of Lee’s Pulitzer
LONG-TIME LAWYER NAMED AS EXECUTOR OF WILL.
Prize- winning debut novel, Mockingbird, which since its publication in 1960, has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and remains a staple on American school curriculums. In addition, Go Set a Watchman, her second novel, was the best- selling book of 2015 in the United States, and sold more than 1.6 million hardcover copies, according to NPD BookScan.
Mockingbird alone sells more than 1 million copies a year worldwide, generating some $3 million in royalties for the copyright holder, according to court documents.
Lee had always lived simply, despite her fame and mounting wealth, and long shared a modest brick home in Monroeville with her older sister, Alice, who died in 2014. Lee could be seen around town in sweatpants looking for bargains at a Dollar General Store, washing her clothes at a local Laundromat, drinking coffee at a McDonald’s or eating at David’s Catfish House, where her usual iced tea and a small plate of catfish would cost about $6.
Often miscast as reclusive, she was no hermit, but she was as ferociously private as she was famous, and shunned interviews.