--- title: Harper Lee: A Librarian Reflects on Her Death description: Jessica Lacher-Feldman was Lee's handler for literary events at the University of Alabama canonical: https://time.com/4231122/harper-lee-death-recluse-librarian/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-19T22:07:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:14:09.364Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Harper Lee Wasn’t a Recluse to Those Who Knew Her, Librarian Says og:description: Jessica Lacher-Feldman was Lee's handler for literary events og:url: https://time.com/4231122/harper-lee-death-recluse-librarian/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt43b85a37abd91525/69887e64cf40a808cac420e9/harper-lee2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Bush Awards Presidential Medal of Freedom og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Harper Lee Wasn’t a Recluse to Those Who Knew Her, Librarian Says twitter:description: Jessica Lacher-Feldman was Lee's handler for literary events twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt43b85a37abd91525/69887e64cf40a808cac420e9/harper-lee2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Harper Lee Wasn’t a Recluse to Those Who Knew Her, Librarian Says > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Feb 19, 2016 10:07 PM UTC  Pulitzer Prize winner and "To Kill A Mockingbird" author Harper Lee smiles before receiving the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom in the East Room of the White House November 5, 2007 in Washington, DC. Pulitzer Prize winner and "To Kill A Mockingbird" author Harper Lee smiles before receiving the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom in the East Room of the White House November 5, 2007 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Feb 19, 2016 10:07 PM UTC Harper Lee was a notoriously private person, seldom giving interviews and leading a life away from the public sphere. But those who knew her say she was not, as some have called her, a “recluse”; she did not eschew the company of others. Jessica Lacher-Feldman would know; for several years, from about [2001 to ’06](http://theadvocate.com/news/acadiana/12939057-123/the-librarian-and-lee-lsus), she accompanied Lee at public events at the University of Alabama, serving as a kind of “handler” for the aging author as she signed books at an annual statewide student essay contest. “I think that there’s this mythic quality about her that we bandy around these words like ‘recluse’ that are just so loaded,” Lacher-Feldman, 47, tells TIME. “She didn’t set out to write the book of the century … She really just wanted to live her life, and she chose the path that she chose. I think that the quieter somebody is, or the less in the limelight in our media hungry society, the more people are going to speculate.” In fact, says Lacher-Feldman of her years interacting with Lee while she worked in the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library at the University of [Alabama](http://time.com/3742318/harper-lee-alabama/?xid=homepage), the novelist that so many Americans came to love through her classic work [_To Kill a Mockingbird_](http://time.com/3948808/review-to-kill-a-mockingbird-movie/?xid=homepage) was “just a very regular woman” and chatting with her was “like spending time with an aunt.” _Order LIFE’s new special edition,_ The Enduring Legacy of Harper Lee and _To Kill a Mockingbird,_ [_available on_ ](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1683303512/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1683303512&linkCode=as2&tag=mockingbird%5Fedit-20&linkId=ROV2OR7EVHPJWEQG)[_Amazon_](http://%20http://amzn.to/1ozqNnQ)_._ Lacher-Feldman was at the events to put Lee at ease. “It was difficult for her to hear often,” she says, “so I would stand and open the pages and talk in her ear, and be a comfort to her.” She was thrilled when she found out about the assignment, and on their first meeting, “it was just me feeling a little bit starstruck, and her just immediately dispelling that.” They mostly talked about Lee’s years at the University of Alabama, and when Lacher-Feldman sent along a photo from Lee’s college years, with Lee posing amid copies of the school’s [humor magazine](http://time.com/4230546/harper-lee-pulitzer-prize-humor/?xid=homepage), a cigarette in her mouth, a handkerchief on her head and a goofy look on her face, Lee sent her a warm thank you note comparing her campus memorabilia to ancient treasures. Lee suffered a stroke in 2007, and eventually stopped attending the event at the University of Alabama. And though Lacher-Feldman is no longer there herself (she’s now the head of special collections at Louisiana State University), she says she hopes the university will be given Lee’s papers. She was interested in the reaction to _Go Set a Watchman_ last summer, and despite feeling some of the anticipation was for the wrong reasons, “if it got people to enter a bookstore, to buy a hardcover first edition and to read a book, I think that’s all a very good thing,” she says. She’s curious to see if more works come out under Lee’s name, as some have [speculated](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/business/media/expert-says-manuscript-is-not-lees-third-novel.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FLee%2C%20Harper&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream%5Funit&version=latest&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=collection) may be possible. Since [news of Lee’s death](http://time.com/4230580/harper-lee-to-kill-mockingbird-dies-89/?2&xid=homepage) broke on Friday morning, people have been expressing their condolences to Lacher-Feldman. “There’s just not that many people that people know that have a connection with her,” she says, “and my connection is tiny and tangential, but it’s real.” And for nearly everyone in Lacher-Feldman’s profession, Friday was a sad day. “I think librarians have a real soft spot for her,” she says. “As a librarian, \[_To Kill a Mockingbird_\] speaks to the importance of books and the magic that they hold for all of us.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4231122/harper-lee-death-recluse-librarian/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4231122/harper-lee-death-recluse-librarian/"},"headline":"Harper Lee Wasn’t a Recluse to Those Who Knew Her, Librarian Says","datePublished":"2016-02-19T22:07:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:14:09.364Z","description":"Jessica Lacher-Feldman was Lee's handler for literary events at the University of Alabama","url":"https://time.com/4231122/harper-lee-death-recluse-librarian/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt43b85a37abd91525/69887e64cf40a808cac420e9/harper-lee2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt43b85a37abd91525/69887e64cf40a808cac420e9/harper-lee2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bush Awards Presidential Medal of Freedom","caption":"Bush Awards Presidential Medal of Freedom","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4231122/harper-lee-death-recluse-librarian/","name":"Harper Lee Wasn’t a Recluse to Those Who Knew Her, Librarian Says"}}]}] ```