Celebration of To Kill a Mockingbird

Not too long ago I heard an NPR interview with Mary McDonagh Murphy, discussing her 'celebration of fifty years of To Kill a Mockingbird'.  I remember first reading Harper Lee's masterpiece in the early 60s when I was about Jem's age.  Over the years have read it several more times (of course getting different perspectives on it at different ages) although I've probably seen the movie many more times than that. Am definitely enjoying this in-depth look at the the novel, novelist, and the story's impact over the years.

To Kill a Mockingbird may well be our national novel.  It is the first adult novel that many of us remember reading, one book that millions of us have in common.  It sells nearly a million copies a year, more than any other twentieth-century American classic.  Harper Lee's first and only novel, published in July 1960, is a beloved classic and touchstone in Aerican literary and social history.

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of To Kill A Mockingbird, Mary McDonagh Murphy reviews its history and examinies how the novel has left its mark on a broad range of novelists, historians, journalists, and artists.

In compelling interviews, Anna Quindlen, Tom Brokaw, Oprah Winfrey, James Patterson, James McBride, Scott Turow, Wally Lamb, Andrew Young, Richard Russo, Adriana Trigiani, Rick Bragg, Jon Meacham, Allan Gurganus, Diane McWhorter, Lee Smith, Roseanne Cash, and other reflect on when they first read the novel, what it means to them - then and now - and how it has affected their lives and careers.  Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird is a lively appreciation of the many ways in which the novel has made - and continues to make - a different to generations of readers.

Harper Lee has not given an interview since 1961, but Murphy's reporting, research, and rare interviews with the author's sister and friends stitch together a brief history how the novel, as well as the acclaimed 1962 movie, came to be.