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Books, as we all know, have very short shelf lives these days. Most new books remain on bookstore display tables for only a few weeks, and on the shelves for a few months at best. When Oprah Winfrey chose Wally Lamb's SHE'S COME UNDONE for her book club a while back, the publisher had to print a new edition of the book because it was absolutely unavailable. To obtain a book two years after publication is rare; for a book to be accessible forty years after it was first published is close to miraculous.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is that rare book. Since its publication in 1960 it has never been out of print. And with good reason - it is one of the finest novels written in this century, and one of the most widely celebrated and read.

And the question arises, from time to time, whatever happened to its author, Harper Lee? After she wrote the book, she dropped out of sight. She granted a few interviews in 1961 when the film was made, but since then very few people have seen her, and those who have, if asked, will politely change the subject. A few years ago, when a 35th anniversary edition of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD was being prepared, a publisher asked her to write an introduction for the book. She wrote, "Please spare 'Mockingbird' an Introduction. As a reader I loathe Introductions. To novels I associate Introductions with long-gone authors and works that are brought back into print after decades of interment...'Mockingbird'...has never been out of print and I am still alive...It still says what it has to say; it has managed to survive the years without preamble."

We do know that she was born and raised in Monroeville, Alabama, and that she lived next door to Truman Capote. They were childhood friends, and that friendship continued until his death in 1984. She traveled to Kansas with him to help him with his research when he was writing IN COLD BLOOD. We also know that Lee lives in New York, while her sister still lives in Monroeville. She visits her sister frequently and is sometimes seen having lunch or shopping at the local Piggly Wiggly. But no one can (or is willing) to talk about her.

In an era when authors become instant celebrities, appearing on countless talk shows and at book readings and signings, she is an enigma. But I think we can learn a lot about her by reading TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. I think it is more autobiographical than we realize - I suspect that she is Scout, that Atticus Finch is her father, and that her dear friend Truman Capote is Dill. That is probably all she wants us to know, and all we need to know.

Judith Handschuh