Nelle Harper Lee

I have been reading a lot lately. There are a few books I am working through and I have been reading some magazine articles and author interviews. But tonight I popped on a website and the topic of chatter was how no one reads books any longer. 

What? Did I really see that? 

They went on to write that less than half of the adult American population reads literature. 

As I saw this, I thought about a recent conversation I had in a nearby restaurant. A lady across from me recognized me and stopped to say hello. She was telling me that a family member had named their daughter Harper. She leaned across the table and said, "Did you ever hear of such a name for a woman?" 

I responded, "Well Yes! Nelle Harper Lee who went by Harper Lee- wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller 'To Kill a Mockingbird". 

I was then greeted with a blank stare that likely meant she had no idea what I was talking about. I smiled and she lead the conversation in another direction.

Thinking about this, I recognized, that the woman across from me would have been a teenager when To Kill a Mockingbird was released. And it's possible she had concentrated her thoughts on the Vietnam War and equal job opportunities instead of an author who won the Presidential Medal of Freedom and wrote "People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.” —Judge Taylor.

Have you run into this issue with someone not being familiar with a famous author? Please share how you handled it.