Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

1. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird • Yes, Harper Lee is a woman. And to date, TKAM is her only book, making her unusual among major American writers.

2. Harper Lee was born April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She currently splits her time between New York City and the quiet Southern town of Monroeville.

3. Harper is the daughter of the late Amasa and Frances Finch Lee. Amasa was a local lawyer in Monroeville. • Harper attended public school in Monroeville and went on to attend the University of Alabama. • She left UA before completing her law degree, but she still considers her time there valuable because of the excellent training she received in thinking and writing.

4. In fact, Monroeville, Alabama can also lay claim to helping raise another great American literary author, Truman Capote. • Although originally born in Louisiana, his mother sent him in 1930 to Monroeville to be raised by his aunt. • He spent his childhood bounced between Monroeville and his mother. • He eventually grew up to be the author of such iconic works as In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. • Capote was the model for one of TKAM’s most important characters, Dill Harris.

5. After leaving Alabama, Harper Lee traveled to New York City with the intent to write. • In order to support herself she worked at various jobs during the day in order to write at night. • After several months of trying to balance the two, a generous friend gave her a special Christmas gift. The husband and wife, who were in the publishing industry and who believed in Harper Lee’s skills as a writer, gave her a check. The check was the calculated sum of money on which she could live for a year and fully devote herself to her writing.

6. In 1957, Harper Lee submitted her first copy of her novel to a publisher. • The novel was criticized for being too episodic- in other words, too much like a collection of loosely connected stories.

7. She worked the next 30 weeks to revise her novel. • How exactly would an author create a novel out of a collection of stories? • Finally in 1960, the novel was published, and it was met with immediate acclaim.

8. Harper Lee’s novel was showered with awards. The most prestigious being the Pulitzer Prize for fiction writing which she received in 1961. Recently President Bush awarded her the highest civilian honor. Bush is quoted: “TKAM has influenced the character of our country for the better.” (2007)

9. The popularity of Lee’s novel is due to the universal appeal of its themes- prejudice, justice, and human dignity. • Lee’s novel has sold over 30 million copies since it was published in 1960 and is included on many reading lists in many U. S. schools. • A movie version of TKAM was released in 1962, which won actor Gregory Peck an Oscar.

10. But surely another reason is the attraction of her story, including her narrator, tomboy Scout Finch. • This is a tribute not only to her writing skills but a tribute to Lee herself because she based her narrator on her own childhood experiences of growing up in the South amidst the backdrop of the 1930s. • Perhaps it is because she put so much of her life into her work that book remains so alive.