--- title: Harper Lee Got Snarky About the Trump Taj Mahal in Letter description: The August 1990 letter from Lee to a friend is now up for auction canonical: https://time.com/4275760/harper-lee-trump-hotel-taj-mahal/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-30T20:40:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:46:41.174Z article:section: History og:title: Harper Lee Got Snarky About the Trump Taj Mahal in Letter og:description: The August 1990 letter from Lee to a friend is now up for auction og:url: https://time.com/4275760/harper-lee-trump-hotel-taj-mahal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf350ed977583152f/69888ce10a4a2292559c9067/160329-harper-lee-letter-02.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 1990 Harper Lee Letter og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Harper Lee Got Snarky About the Trump Taj Mahal in Letter twitter:description: The August 1990 letter from Lee to a friend is now up for auction twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf350ed977583152f/69888ce10a4a2292559c9067/160329-harper-lee-letter-02.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Letter Reveals Harper Lee's Snarky Take on the Trump Taj Mahal  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Mar 30, 2016 8:40 PM UTC  Signed Harper Lee letter from 1990. Signed Harper Lee letter from 1990.Nate D. Sanders Auctions  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Mar 30, 2016 8:40 PM UTC  Signed Harper Lee letter from 1990. Nate D. Sanders Auctions Back in 1990, _To Kill a Mockingbird_ and _Go Set a Watchman_ author wrote a letter to a friend, Doris Leapard, describing the benefits of a program showcasing Alabama writers, her appreciation of the work of author Elise Sanguinetti and her critique of a story that had appeared in the _Birmingham News_. But, as that letter goes up for [auction](http://natedsanders.com/Harper%5FLee%5FLetter%5FSigned%5FWith%5FFantastic%5FContent%5F%5F%5F-LOT42397.aspx) Wednesday and Thursday, it is another remark of Lee’s that might catch observers’ eyes. “The worst punishment God can devise for this sinner,” wrote Lee, “is to make her spirit reside eternally at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City.” [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) Though Donald Trump’s current run for the White House lends interest to the letter, it’s worth noting that Lee was writing at a time when the Trump Taj Mahal carried very specific cultural connotations. Trump, who had been the subject of a TIME [cover story](http://time.com/vault/issue/1989-01-16/page/1/) the previous year, had acquired the hotel—which was to be three times the size of the real Taj Mahal—in a very public [negotiation](http://time.com/vault/issue/1988-04-25/page/55/) over a series of Atlantic City hotels and casinos, which helped to make the real-estate developer a household name. It also helped contribute to[ ongoing woes](http://time.com/vault/issue/1989-09-25/page/1/) in the New Jersey city, where smaller casinos suffered under the competition of Trump’s holdings, and locals spoke out against Trump’s idea that, as TIME phrased it, “Atlantic City should be turned into a giant nonresidential entertainment park on the scale of Disneyland.” When the hotel opened in 1990, shortly before Lee wrote that letter, doubts about the casino’s future prospects were [already surfacing](http://time.com/vault/issue/1990-04-09/page/86/). Trump would have to clear about $1 million a day to make good on the investment and his loans. By November, he [had missed](http://time.com/vault/issue/1990-11-26/page/115/) a payment and the Taj was facing possible bankruptcy. (In 1991, the corporation did [file](http://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/29/business/company-news-court-backs-trump-s-plan-to-shed-half-of-taj-mahal.html) for Chapter 11 but it stayed open.) The hotel and casino more recently [filed](https://subscribe.washingtonpost.com/acquisition/?prompt=1&promo=digital03%5Fpaywall&oscode=RPWH&wpsrc=CM0000446&page=national:blog:post-nation%20-%2011256%20-%2020140909%20-%20trump-taj-mahal-is-expected-to-close-which-means-atlantic-city-may-lose-five-casinos-this-year§ion=wp%20-%20national&prev=&geo=&ctype=blog&signedin=logged%20out&mcount=5&sub=0&ismetered=1&destination=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/09/09/trump-taj-mahal-is-expected-to-close-which-means-atlantic-city-may-lose-five-casinos-this-year/&action=3&sub=0&mtr=1&mtrct=5&mtfn=1&t=10708&st=-1&loc=0&mvw=5&wa=3&fr=0&dt=0&mx=0&pwo=1&rwb=0&v=2.3&acq%5Ftest=1#/paywall/offers/promo/digital03%5Fpaywall/oscode/RPWH?wpsrc=CM0000446&page=national:blog:post-nation%20-%2011256%20-%2020140909%20-%20trump-taj-mahal-is-expected-to-close-which-means-atlantic-city-may-lose-five-casinos-this-year§ion=wp%20-%20national&prev=&geo=&ctype=blog&signedin=logged%20out&mcount=5&sub=0&sub=0&ismetered=1&destination=https:%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fnews%2Fpost-nation%2Fwp%2F2014%2F09%2F09%2Ftrump-taj-mahal-is-expected-to-close-which-means-atlantic-city-may-lose-five-casinos-this-year%2F&action=3&mtr=1&mtrct=5&mtfn=1&t=10708&st=-1&loc=0&mvw=5&wa=3&fr=0&dt=0&mx=0&pwo=1&rwb=0&v=2.3&acq%5Ftest=1) for bankruptcy, in 2014, from which it [emerged](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/b4b87d96fc274c32b1092a7c28270e36/taj-mahal-casino-out-bankruptcy-icahns-hands) just last month—without Trump at the helm. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4275760/harper-lee-trump-hotel-taj-mahal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4275760/harper-lee-trump-hotel-taj-mahal/"},"headline":"Letter Reveals Harper Lee's Snarky Take on the Trump Taj Mahal","datePublished":"2016-03-30T20:40:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:46:41.174Z","description":"The August 1990 letter from Lee to a friend is now up for auction","url":"https://time.com/4275760/harper-lee-trump-hotel-taj-mahal/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Books","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf350ed977583152f/69888ce10a4a2292559c9067/160329-harper-lee-letter-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf350ed977583152f/69888ce10a4a2292559c9067/160329-harper-lee-letter-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"1990 Harper Lee Letter","caption":"Signed Harper Lee letter from 1990 with disdain to Trump Taj Mahal.","creditText":"Nate D. Sanders Auctions","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/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4275760/harper-lee-trump-hotel-taj-mahal/","name":"Letter Reveals Harper Lee's Snarky Take on the Trump Taj Mahal"}}]}] ```