A handwritten note from Harper Lee is the politest rejection

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — It was, without a doubt, the nicest rejection of my journalistic career.
I was working on a project about whether “Southernness” was an outdated notion in our mobile culture, and was looking for regional icons to share their thoughts. One of the first names that popped into my mind was Harper Lee.
The author of “To Kill a Mockingbird” hadn’t granted an interview in about four decades, but I figured it was worth a shot. So I crafted a lette