Shields, I believe, was the first to reveal the huge role that Nelle's New York friends Michael and Joy Brown, whom I also got to know years later, in the creation of 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' Truman Capote, her hometown friend, had asked them to befriend her when she moved to New York. Was he a boyfriend or just a friend? He was Southern, I'm pretty sure.' But this chat did take place in the office on Park Avenue South.

'I also have a recollection of her being with a young man of her age (name escapes me was it John?) as they chatted with me. 'I remember Nelle as being very friendly and outgoing, chipper with a warm smile and friendly greeting as she walked through the office,' I wrote him in part. They were extremely supportive of employees and even closed the office to transport them (including me) to an annual clambake at Jones Beach.Ĭharles Shields asked me to share my memories of Nelle from those days for a future revision of his 'Mockingbird.' Cocking was a most considerate, kind, and accommodating man as were other officers at Buttenheim Publishing Corp., which had several other trade publications in its stable. In my experience, kids right out of college who want to become novelists are not given time to stretch their creative genius at work!'īut I would not discount that because Dr. Lately, though, I heard the rumor that the higher-ups at School Executive allowed her to spend time on her own writing. 'I wasn't aware, despite all my research, that she had ever worked anywhere else except at a bookstore and then for two airlines in succession. That interested him, he told me, since 'by coincidence I was in education for a long time and wrote several articles for that venerable publication.'

I am scout by charles j shields