From todays Writers Almanac by Garrison Keillor To Kill a Mockingbird was published on this date in 1960. Nelle Harper Lee started writing anecdotes about life in the South after she moved to New York City in 1949, but they just werent coming together. The work she produced was good enough to land her an agent, who encouraged her, but in 1957 she became so frustrated that she threw her manuscript out the window of her apartment. Luckily for lovers of literature, she quickly repented and retrieved the pages. She completely dismantled what she had written, rebuilt it, and turned it into the book that would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961. When To Kill a Mockingbird first came out, Lee wasnt sure what to expect. I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement, she later said. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death Id expected. At first, she was happy to grant interviews with anyone who asked, but she soon realized that journalists were just asking the same questions over and over again — most people wanted to know how much of the book had been drawn from Lees own childhood. She grew up a tomboy in Monroeville, Alabama, and her father practiced law at the courthouse. Young Nelle would often sit in on his trials, just as Scout did in the book. But she insisted that any similarity was superficial. Others tried to get her to admit that her friend Truman Capote had written most of the book. And finally, everyone wanted to know what her next book was about, and when it would be published. After several failed attempts to write a follow-up book, she finally admitted that she had been overwhelmed by the success of To Kill a Mockingbird, and she feared she would never be able to match it. She has shunned publicity for herself and her novel since 1964, and she has never written another book. For many years, Lee divided her time between Monroeville and New York, but now lives in her hometown full time. There have been many changes since her childhood; since the books publication, Monroeville has become a popular destination for literary tourists. Her fathers courthouse has been turned into a Mockingbird museum and gift shop, and there are a handful of restaurants named after the book and its characters. The town has staged a play based on the book every year since the early 1990s; the first act is presented in the town square, and everyone troops inside the courthouse for the second act. The novel has sold more than 30 million copies since it was published, and has been translated into 40 languages. In 1999, librarians named it their favorite 20th-century novel. It was also one of the most frequently challenged or banned books of the 20th century. Last spring, Lee finally agreed to allow her book to be published in an electronic format. Its one of the last classic American novels to move to that format. She announced the news on April 28, her 88th birthday. Im still old-fashioned, the author said. I love dusty old books and libraries. She added, I am amazed and humbled that Mockingbird has survived this long. This is Mockingbird for a new generation. The e-book and a new audio book narrated by Sissy Spacek were released on July 8.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 13:04:20 +0000
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