Owner Interview: 1960 Inscribed "To Kill A Mockingbird"
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INTERVIEWER: All right, Tay, tell me about your experience on Roadshow today.
GUEST:
It has been the most exciting day ever! My book, “To Kill A Mockingbird,” which is signed by Nelle Harper Lee, it was inscribed to my grandmother, Tay, who I was named after. My grandmother was Tay Hohoff, who was the editor of “To Kill A Mockingbird.” When the book came out, my mother and dad and I were living in Tuscaloosa, and my mother threw these great cocktail parties. And I was about six, and I got to be part of the cocktail party if I acted like an adult. Well, I gather at some point in the evening, I was not adult enough, and I got sent to the back porch. I'm sitting on the back porch, feeling very sorry for myself, and who comes and sits with me but Nelle Harper Lee. And we sit on the back porch and talk for about half an hour. And the story goes, that pretty much everybody had left the party by the time we came back in.
INTERVIEWER: Did you end up meeting any other kinds of writers or have any other adventures because of ...
GUEST:
Well, I've had a lot of adventures. But when I met Harper Lee, it was also about the same time that I got to meet Truman Capote. Because my grandmother was an editor for Lippincott, and that's who published his books.
INTERVIEWER: So where do you keep this book at home right now?
GUEST:
It's been in the plastic bag on the shelf. Bad, bad girl. Ken told me that I needed to get, I believe it's glycine, to put around the book to help keep it from getting any more torn up. And now that I've been here and I know better, I won't put it back in its little plastic bag. I promise.
INTERVIEWER: Do you have any plans for the book after ROADSHOW?
GUEST:
Yeah, I gonna be putting it in the safety deposit box. Ken told me that, with the inscription, it would be worth at least $12,000 to $15,000 and perhaps a little more. So yeah, obviously we don't get rid of these things, but perhaps somewhere safer.
INTERVIEWER: Do you ever have any relatives that read “To Kill A Mockingbird,” and have you let them read from that copy?
GUEST:
I'm not letting anybody touch this! Go buy a new copy.
INTERVIEWER: Perfect, perfect.
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