Where in the World Is... Harper Lee

Where in the World is...

Harper Lee

June was the 50th Anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird, so it seems ony right to ask, "Where in the world is Harper Lee.

After the publication of the novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction award in 1961, Lee accompanied Truman Capote to Holcomb, Kansas, helping him research the Clutter family murders. The case and subsequent trial were written about in his famous book In Cold Blood. Since then, although she started and abandoned both a second novel and a nonfiction text, To Kill a Mockingbird remains Lee's only major work.

In more recent years, Lee, now eighty-four years old, travels back and forth between New York City and Monroeville, Alabama. She received an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 2006, and that same year, wrote a letter to Oprah that was published in the July 2006 edition of O Magazine. She also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, a prestigious award that was previously presented to Mother Teresa, Margaret Thatcher, and Tony Blair.

Where in the World is... R.L. Stein

Where in the world is...

R.L. Stine?

Long before teenage girls flocked to midnight releases of the latest Twilight novel, even before J.K. Rowling published her first book about the young, bespectacled boy who would become a great wizard, a book series captivated scared the wits out of young readers, sent them flocking to their libraries on summer vacation.

I'm talking about R.L. Stine's Goosebumps novels, those terrifying but age appropriate books that primed my generation to be Stephen King and Dean Koontz fans later in life. I, personally, have fond memories of getting phone calls from my library--the books were so popular that there was a wait list to take them out--begging my mother to drive me there, getting the books, and spending the first half of the night reading them from cover to cover. The second part of the night was, of course, spent trembling under the covers, jumping at every small sound in the house.

So where in the world is R.L. Stine?

The answer is an simple one: he is still busy writing. Stine now has over 300 novels and short stories accredited to him, and he is now working on a series, Horrorland, for the new generation of Goosebumps fans. According to his website, seven new titles will be released in 2010. Furthermore, Stine spent a some time in China, where he visited members of his international fanbase, and more recently, gave the commencement speech for MacCaulay College (CUNY).

In short, Stein has not left the spotlight at all; his older fanbase has merely grown up.

Image (CC) 2008 Larry D. Moore

Where in the World is... J.K. Rowling

Where in the World Is

J.K. Rowling

After completing the seventh and final Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007), Rowling wrote The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2008), an anthology of children’s stories in the wizarding world. (Potter fans might also recognize the book as the one Albus Dumbledore left Hermione in Deathly Hallows). Her characters and stories remain popular, and fans eagerly await the newest Harry Potter blockbuster and the Orlando theme park; however, the beloved author has been been frequently in the media spotlight.


Recently, J.K. Rowling has become involved in a billion-dollar lawsuit, in which the estate of the late author Adrian Jacobs has accused her of plagiarizing a story entitled Willy the Wizard: No. 1 Livid Land in her book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Bloomsbury Publisher, however, affirms that the claim is without merit and the case should be dismissed.


Additionally, Rowling appeared at the Annual White House Easter Egg Roll, at which she read selections from Harry Potter and answered questions. It is rumored that J.K. Rowling is writing again, but on a project that is not Potter-related. Her last update on her personal Twitter account reads, “This is the real me, but you won’t be hearing from me often I am afraid, as pen and paper is my priority at the moment.”