Lee, Harper: 1926 - 2016

To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960 - Information about the Book

  • General Information
  • Facts
    • When Harper Lee submitted the manuscript to J.B. Lippincott Company in 1957, the publisher told her it read more like a series of short stories than a novel. She spent the next two years revising it. The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was finally published in 1960.
    • In 2006, British librarians ranked the book ahead of the Bible as one "every adult should read before they die."
    • The book was banned and challenged in the USA as a "filthy, trashy novel", which does "psychological damage to the positive integration process" and "represents institutionalized racism under the guise of 'good literature'", using the word "nigger" and "containing profanity and racial slurs which have a negative effect on students".
    • ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ remains among top banned classical novels. PBS; February 19, 2016
    • Book bans are political tools, teachers must be better trained. KCRW Radio, Santa Monica; May 05, 2022
    • Reader Resources
    • Characters
    • Extensive Explanation of the Characters
    • Theme, Motifs, Symbols
    • The Truth about Boo Radley
    • Analysis
  • Symbolism
  • Articles
    • Short review. Phoebe Adams describes the novel as "pleasant, undemanding reading" in the August, 1960, issue of The Atlantic Monthly
    • How newspapers reviewed ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ in 1960. PBS News Hour; July 13, 2015
    • Why people around the world love ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’: "It has all the factors of a great read. It is touching and funny but has a serious message about prejudice, fighting for justice and coming of age." Allison Jackson, GlobalPost; February 3, 2015
    • Why is To Kill A Mockingbird so popular?: "The voice of Scout is part of a uniquely American tradition of young narrators, that appeals to teenage readers". BBC; June 15, 2010
    • Harper Lee's novel is a racist morality tale by Fred Leebron. Seattle Post-Intelligencer; September 14, 2007
    • How Well Did We Know Atticus Finch? WGBH; July 13, 2015
    • Information about the first edition. Approximately 5,000 first printings were produced.
    • Author In 1964, Harper Lee sat down with WQXR host Roy Newquist for an interview. This interview is the only known recording of Lee discussing "To Kill a Mockingbird," and one of the last interviews she would ever give. WQXR Radio, New York; rebroadcast February 24, 2016
    • An in-depth look: with David Baker, Robert Duvall, Horton Foote, Charles J. Shields, Curtis Sittenfeld, Elizabeth Spencer, Anne Twomey, and Sandra Day O'Connor. National Endowment for the Arts; November 24, 2013
      • Excerpt:
        Now, a Literary Moment...

        For six years, Harper Lee worked odd jobs in New York City to make ends meet, writing in the evenings. She finally got a book contract with a major publisher for what would be her only novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

        Lee's biographer Charles J. Shields: So for two and a half years, living almost entirely on her advance alone, she worked on this novel. At one point, she got so fed up that she got up from her desk, went over to the window, and threw it out in the snow, the entire manuscript. She called her editor, Tay Hohoff, at Lippincott and told her what she'd done and Tay told her to march out and get it all back.

        And lucky for us. Publishers often refer to their daily avalanche of unsolicited manuscripts as the 'slush pile.' But To Kill A Mockingbird may be the only classic that needed rescuing from a slush pile even after a publisher accepted it.

        This Literary Moment was created by the National Endowment for the Arts

    • Audio (4:05)
      Who Wrote 'To Kill a Mockingbird': Truman Capote or Harper Lee? Dr. Wayne Flynt discusses the basis for the persistent rumor and explains why Harper Lee is the author. NPR Radio; May 3, 2006
      • Transcript:

        In the decades since Harper Lee published TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD in 1960, her novel has been shadowed by a persistent rumor. The speculation has been that Lee's long time friend Truman Capote either wrote or heavily edited the book, which would go on to be a bestseller and win the Pulitzer Prize.

        Well, now a letter from Truman Capote to his aunt, dated July 9, 1959, should help put that rumor to rest. Joining us to talk about it is Wayne Flynt. He is a retired history professor at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. And he has researched the writings of both Harper Lee and Truman Capote. Welcome.

        WAYNE FLYNT: Thank you.

        FLYNT: Essentially, it says that a year before the novel was published in July of 1960, that Capote had seen the novel, had read much of the book, and liked it very much, and commented that she has great talent. And nowhere in the letter does he claim any involvement whatsoever in the book.

        BLOCK: And by saying that he's seen it would appear to put some distance at least with it?

        FLYNT: That's correct. That's correct.

        BLOCK: How did this rumor get started in the first place?

        FLYNT: Well, some claim Pearl Belle, who is a literary critic and editor in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has actually claimed that Capote implied to her that he had written the book or had a good deal to do with the writing of the book. I think probably the rumor results from the fact that TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is the only published book that Harper Lee ever did.

        BLOCK: Yeah, that that would fuel it. In other words, she was one and done, and if she were such a great writer, why wouldn't she keep writing great books?

        FLYNT: Exactly. Which basically judges her by the standards of our own culture, which is once you've got a taste of fame and fortune, why in the world wouldn't you continue it?

        BLOCK: If you look closely at TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and the writing of Truman Capote, do you see anyway that Truman Capote could have written TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD?

        FLYNT: No. The voice of the characters in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is a totally different literary voice. Some have claimed that he's so brilliant that he could have simply assumed the voice of his good friend Harper Lee. I don't believe that for a minute. Writers simply don't assume another voice, another persona, another kind of literary style. Hers is very much the same style as her writing in the Crimson White eight years before this book is published.

        BLOCK: Wayne Flynt, have you met Harper Lee yourself?

        FLYNT: Yes.

        BLOCK: And you've talked to her about this?

        FLYNT: Yes.

        BLOCK: Can you tell us anything that she might have told you, without violating the confidence?

        FLYNT: Not really, because she's such a private person. And I think to ask her the question would be to do the very thing that so many people have done, which is to interrupt her privacy. And I think that she understands this as part of hype that goes along with the mythology of Truman Capote and Harper Lee. They're both a part of mythology.

        BLOCK: Do you really think this letter from Truman Capote alluding to a book from Harper Lee that he has seen and that he thinks is quite good, do you think that will actually kill the rumor that he actually wrote the book?

        FLYNT: I think it will go along way towards that, although I think the most convincing evidence is really inferential evidence. Here's a person who was known for his enormous ego and for his banter and for his self-promotion. Here's a man who wanted desperately to win the National Book Award and wanted desperately to win the Pulitzer Prize and never won either one of them. And to assume, as jealous as he was of Harper Lee's success, he would not have claimed credit for this if he in fact done it, is simply too much for me to believe. So I don't know that we needed this letter, but I suppose it does put to rest some of the naysayers out there and some of the people who have claimed that she really is not a great literary talent.

        BLOCK: Well, Wayne Flynt, good to talk to you. Thanks so much.

        FLYNT: Thank you.

    • Audio (7:47)
      "'Mockingbird' Still Sings America's Song. "Trying to find your identity and realizing that your society doesn't always tell you the right thing" is a particularly profound message for teens." NPR Radio; July 7, 2010 - transcript
    • Audio (6:04)
      To Meet A 'Mockingbird': Memoir Recalls Talks With Harper Lee. In 2001, Marja Mills, a reporter for The Chicago Tribune showed up in Lee's hometown of Monroeville, Ala.; she struck up a friendship with Lee's older sister Alice. She then published a book about her time with the Lees, "The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee". NPR Radio; July 21, 2014 - transcript
    • Wally Lamb discusses Scout's universally sympathetic voice and the ways in which To Kill a Mockingbird and all literature can act as an agent of change. PBS; April 1, 2012
    • James McBride discusses how Harper Lee used the voice of her protagonists in To Kill a Mockingbird to bravely provide an accessible and radical point of view about racism in 1960. He describes and how today's authors can expand upon Lee's views. PBS; April 1, 2012
    • Sue Wasiolek, Duke University, on "To Kill a Mockingbird". April 21, 2011