Book shows personal side of ‘Mockingbird’ author Harper Lee

Alabama historian Wayne Flynt holds a copy of his new book, “Afternoons with Harper Lee,” about the late author of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” at a book-signing in Homewood, Alabama. Flynt and his late wife were friends with Lee, who died in 2016. (AP)

HOMEWOOD, Ala. — To the world, Harper Lee was aloof to the point of being unknowable, an obsessively private person who spent most of her life avoiding the public gaze despite writing one of the best-selling books ever, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” To Wayne Flynt, the Alabama-born author was his friend, Nelle.

Flynt, a longtime Southern historian who became close friends with Nelle Harper Lee late in her life, has written his second book about the author, “Afternoons with Harper Lee,” which was released Thursday with Flynt signing copies at a bookstore in suburban Birmingham.