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Harper Lee -- who turns 85 today -- denies cooperating with upcoming book

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People are inevitably curious about Harper Lee. The author of the much-loved novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ has kept to herself since the book’s publication in 1960, eventually moving back to Alabama, and never publishing another book.

On Tuesday, Penguin announced that it would publish a memoir of lives intertwined with the reclusive writer, ‘The Mockingbird Next Door: Life With Harper Lee,’ by Marja Mills, a former Chicago Tribune reporter, written ‘with direct access to Harper and Alice Lee [her sister] and their friends and family.’

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On Wednesday, the N.Y. Times reports, Harper Lee issued a statement saying that she had not cooperated with the book. ‘Contrary to recent news reports, I have not willingly participated in any book written or to be written by Marja Mills. Neither have I authorized such a book. Any claims otherwise are false.’

The statement was issued by the law firm Barnett, Bugg, Lee & Carter -- the ‘Lee’ is Harper’s sister Alice -- and signed by Harper Lee.

Mills’ literary agent, Miriam Altshuler, told the paper that her client ‘has the written support of Alice Lee and a lifelong family friend, and prior to Harper Lee’s stroke in 2007, she had the verbal support of Harper Lee.’

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Even if the book does not proceed as originally billed, but curiosity about the woman who wrote ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ will remain high. It has been decades since she gave an actual interview -- although she did speak politely (about ducks) to a British reporter who tracked her down in 2010.

As few details of her life are known, one thing is certain: Today, April 28, is Harper Lee’s 85th birthday.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

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