According to Writer’s Almanac, this week marks the fifty year anniversary of Harper Lee’s only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.
The story is narrated by six-year-old Scout Finch in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama. It was an immediate best-seller, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and an instant American classic. Many people believe it to be one of the greatest works of southern fiction ever written. It continues to sell incredibly well, with 30 million copies still in print.
The book’s title appears in a scene in chapter 10, where Scout remembers something her dad, Atticus, has said and asks her neighbor Miss Maudie about it.
”I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.
“Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.
For years after seeing the movie as a girl, I wished that Atticus Finch was my father, since my personal father wasn’t quite up for the task. And like millions of other kids in the States, I was required to read To Kill a Mockingbird in high school. But I didn’t understand this book’s power until I re-read it a few years ago.
Harper Lee
What about you? Have you read this book? What did you think of it? Why do you think Harper Lee didn’t write another novel? I’d love to hear from you.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I blush to admit I have not read this and a lot of other books I really should have. What can I say? I’m culturally-impoverished.
I read “To Kill a Mockingbird” of my own accord about 15 years ago when I was about 20 years old and working in a tiny bookstore. I remember liking it, but I don’t remember it in great detail. Your post makes me think I should read it again! To this day, I still try to think of ways to manipulate someone into “spontaneously” giving me the nickname “Scout.” That might be my favorite all time character/person name. Didn’t Demi Moore and Bruce Willis name one of their children Scout? Lucky kid.
Why didn’t Lee write another novel? I can’t say. I have heard that one shouldn’t overly praise children (“Wow! That’s the best drawing EVER!”) because rather than encouraging them, it can make them afraid that the next time they will fail because they will never be able to surpass – or even equal – their previous effort, so they refuse to try again. Maybe something like that happened to Lee. After so much success with her first novel, she was afraid she could never write another of its equal, and anything else would have been a failure. To her, at least.
I read the book many years ago, and determined to myself that when I had kids I would teach them to read at 3, on their parents’ knees. It didn’t happen, and even today my kids don’t like to read.
I think the book gave me a strong sense of social justice – I was a kid in a time when, for example in Australia, Aborigines were still under the Wildlife Department!
There are some books I read twice, this is one I must revisit. I’ve read Seeking Susan Summers twice too!
Whoops! Sara Summers! LOL
Oh, and I heard someone quote Lee as having not written another book because she’d said all she’d got to say, and indeed she said it very well!
You guys are great. Thanks for all these comments!
John, I think this book was required reading in the South, where I grew up, but maybe not other places. I hope you decide to read it someday.
Sonja, I have decided to nickname you the “Scout” for this blog.
And thanks, Carrie, for reading SSS twice. Thankfully, I do not feel like I’ve said all that I have to say.
Great conversation going on with facebook friends about this post. Here’s a sampling:
J.G. said: “I showed the film to my student-friends in China, and they were very impressed! Only the strong southern accent gave them trouble…as far as understanding the English goes!!
J.P. said: “I read it again every couple of years to remind myself of the huge (and wonderfully positive) impact it had on me when I first read it as a child. One of my all time favorite books.”
M.G. said: I have read it many, many times. It’s like a touchstone for me.
L.P. said: A great book filled with a great cast of characters, from Uncle Jack to Scout’s first grade teacher. In fact, when my students would watch the movie after reading the book, they were disappointed that so many characters were left out! Love both versions.
C.K. said: Funny – I just picked it up last night and started reading it – had no idea it was the anniversary. One of my favorite lines ever: “Hey, Boo.”
Me: I love these comments. Thanks! As a southerner, it was kind of required reading when I was growing up. Any thoughts on why Harper Lee never wrote another book?
J.P. said: I think that was the story she had to tell — and frankly why mess with perfection. Had she written a second book, the critics would have chewed her up with comparisons to Mockingbird.
J.G. said: One article I read said her response to the question of why she never wrote another novel was, “When you’re at the top there’s only one way to go.” Another article quoted it, “I haven’t anywhere to go but down.”
Me: Thanks for the quotes, Judy. I wonder what would have happened if she had challenged herself on those beliefs. Somehow, I can’t help thinking that we’ve all missed out because she was afraid of her own greatness (or lack thereof). Also, if that’s her only reason for not writing another book, she is letting the world determine who she is, instead of spirit/soul.
J.P. said: I don’t understand the near obsession of the literary community with why she didn’t write other books. The fact that she didn’t doesn’t take anything away from the greatness of Mockingbird. Maybe it truly was the only book she had in her. And I understand why she didn’t grant interviews much, she probably didn’t want to talk about the books she didn’t write. But I get the feeling she didn’t let anybody determine anything about who she was.
LOL, thanks. You’ve made my scheming, I mean dream, come true!
> John, I think this book was required reading
> in the South, where I grew up, but maybe not
> other places. I hope you decide to read it
> someday.
I’m terribly afraid it’s going to depress me, and I already know about all the injustices that have gone on (and continue to go on) in the world, so I’m actually afraid to read it. But maybe I’m wrong.