praise: Harper Lee

Sometimes you get to revisit scintillating, scathing, or ground-breaking prose. And this time you get to see it clearly, for what it is. 

Harper Lee influenced generations who have grown up on the crisp and intelligent prose of her one novel. 

And yet she has remained completely modest, in the shadows, and barely published again.

 Instead of giving an acceptance speech for the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, she said, "It is better to remain silent than to be a fool." 

If only the fools remained silent, the wise women spoke, and the rest of us listened.