I finished reading two biographies of American female writers this week. One thing I found interesting was that, in a way, Julia Child and Nelle Harper Lee were living somewhat parallel lives at the time they were each working on their first (and in Lee’s case, only) book: each worked throughout the 1950s on their masterpiece, finally publishing a successful bestseller in 1960 (Lee) and 1961 (Child). Each never had any children. But aside from that, they had little else in common.

Reading Child’s autobiography gave me new insight into the full life she lived, her wit, her charm, and her constant love of learning, of food, and of France. She didn’t really find her calling until she was in her late thirties, and didn’t become famous until she was in her forties. Harper Lee was in her thirties when she became well-known, but she had been writing for her whole life. And unlike Child, she never took to fame, and never enjoyed the limelight. Reading these books back-to-back was an interesting juxtaposition of two very down-to-earth but also very different women who were basically of the same generation (though Child was fourteen years older).

Each was inspiring to me in their own way. Harper Lee worked on her book for years, hours every day, not bothering to be part of the “literati” or “networking” or submitting stories or excerpts to magazines to get her name out there. I wonder if that’s even possible now, for an unknown author to publish a book. Perhaps I shall find out someday (that the answer is “no way”).

Anyway, next up for me is a short story collection by Grace Paley: Enormous Changes at the Last Minute.