Almanac of Story Tellers: Harper Lee

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of April 28th

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    It is the 118th day of the year, leaving 247 days remaining in 2022.

    On the date in 1926, the novelist Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Ala.

 

     Her best-selling novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, is perhaps the ultimate one-hit wonder in the literature category. Oh, but what a wonder it was.

    Years in the making, with help from several dedicated literary agents and the incomparable writer Truman Capote, Lee's book was finally published in 1960s. The novel -- set in the Deep South in the early years of the Great Depression -- shows the struggles of the principles of racial justice from the point of view of the narrator, a young white girl nicknamed Scout. It tells the tale of her father, Atticus Finch, a white lawyer who defends a Black man charged with molesting a white girl.

    Unlike most one-hit wonders, it has become a classic, a story beloved by young girls and lawyers, and one that remains part of the American literary canon.

    It was an immeidate best seller, and it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. A movie adaption the following year, with Gregory Peck in the lead role, was similarly admired. Peck won the Oscar for playing Finch, and the film was nominated for eight Academy Awards.

    The book continues to play a role in America life. Many attorneys cite its themes of justice, equality, and integrity as why they went to law school. It is regularly read -- and just as often, regularly sought to be banned because of its racially charged language -- in the public schools.

    It appears on many lists of the 20th Century's greatest novels. In 2006, British librarians ranked it first in a list of books every adult should read.

    After a few years in the public eye after her book was published, Lee withdrew and stopped granting interviews. She wrote a few columns, but did not write another book. A second novel, Go Set a Watchman -- originally termed a sequel but later seen as a first draft of Mockingbird -- was published shortly before her death under questionable circumstances about whether she agreed to do so. 

    Lee died in 2016 in her hometown.