July 11, 1960: Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird is published. It becomes one of the most beloved, and one of the most controversial, novels of the 20th Century.
Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. Her father, Amasa Coleman Lee, was a lawyer, and later that year was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives, serving 12 years. Through him, she was descended from Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Just as Nelle, who dropped her first name for her pen name, made herself the basis for the novel's protagonist, Jean Louise, a.k.a. "Scout," her father became the basis for Scout's father, Atticus. Her mother was born Frances Finch, and Finch became the family's name in the book. Monroeville was renamed Maycomb.
She had 2 much older sisters, and a brother 6 years older, Edwin, who died in 1951, only 31 years old. He became the basis for Scout's brother James, or "Jem." During the Summer, a boy named Truman Capote visited Monroeville. They remained friends for the rest of Capote's life. In the book, Capote becomes Charles Baker Harris, a.k.a. "Dill."
She attended the University of Alabama, and moved to New York, working as an airline reservation agent and writing in her spare time. At Christmas 1956, her friends gave her a gift of enough money to amount to a year's wages, so she could take a year off and concentrate on writing.
She wrote something she titled Go Set a Watchman. But while her would-be publisher, Tay Hofhoff of J.B. Lippincott & Co. (which was bought out by Harper & Row in 1978), saw talent, she also saw disorganization, a collection of anecdotes rather than a genuine novel. She provided professional assistance, and, in 1960, the book was ready to go, as To Kill a Mockingbird. The title comes from something Atticus tells Scout: "It's a sin to kill a mockingbird," because they simply sing their song, and never harm others.
The book takes place in rural Alabama, which would later be the case with the film Forrest Gump, and the parody film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. We know the climax takes place in 1935, because Atticus tells Scout that the National Recovery Act, a big part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal program, had been "killed." When she asks who killed it, he says, "Nine old men," already a longtime epithet for the Supreme Court of the United States.
Lee's mother died when she was living in New York, but in the book, Scout's mother has already died by the time the book begins, and the Finch's black cook, Calpurnia, helps to raise Scout and Jem. The family's tolerance for black people -- at least, in comparison to most of the white people in Maycomb -- is shown when Atticus becomes the only lawyer in town willing to defend Tom Robinson, a black man indicted for the rape and assault & battery of Mayella Ewell.
Atticus' cross-examination of Mayella's father Bob reveals that he had caused her facial bruises, beating her after she made advances on Tom. The people of the town referred to the Ewells as "white trash" and didn't trust them. Nevertheless, this was 1935 Alabama, and the jury was all white men, and Tom was convicted. Shortly thereafter, Tom is shot and killed, allegedly while trying to escape from jail. In essence, it was a lynching without the actual hanging.
Bob swears revenge on Atticus, first spitting tobacco in his face, then, after the school Halloween pageant, attacking the Finch children. They are saved by the mysterious Arthur "Boo" Radley, and the police cover up for him by saying that Bob fell on his own knife.
Atticus sums up Bob, and so many others among his fellow white Southern men, by saying, "Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)... There are just some kind of men who -- who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results."
Outside the South, the book was hailed as an instant classic. It routinely makes best-ever lists. Inside the South, it was condemned. To this day, people try to ban it from school libraries -- conservatives because it makes racism look bad, and liberals because, in keeping with the language of the time, the book includes words that would be considered unacceptable today.
Amasa Coleman Lee died in 1962, a few months before the premiere of the film based on the book. Gregory Peck played Atticus, Mary Badham (sister of film director John) played Scout, Phillip Alford played Jem, John Megna played Jem, Brock Peters played Tom, James Anderson played Bob, and a young Robert Duvall played Boo.
The film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, and won 3, impressive considering it was up against Lawrence of Arabia, Birdman of Alcatraz, Days of Wine and Roses, The Miracle Worker, The Music Man, Mutiny On the Bounty, Long Day's Journey Into Night, and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Peck won Best Actor, beating out Peter O'Toole for Lawrence, Burt Lancaster for Birdman, Jack Lemmon for Days of Wine and Roses, and Marcello Mastroianni for Divorce Italian Style.
Lee never wrote another book, and rarely granted interviews. In one, in 2011, she explained why she never wrote another book: "Two reasons: one, I wouldn't go through the pressure and publicity I went through with To Kill a Mockingbird for any amount of money. Second, I have said what I wanted to say, and I will not say it again." In 2007, President George W. Bush awarded her the Presidential medal of Freedom.
In 2014, Lee's lawyer found the original manuscript for Go Set a Watchman in a safe-deposit box. With her permission, it was re-submitted, 58 years after its 1st attempt. It was published the next year, and takes place in the 1950s, when Scout returns as an adult from New York to visit Maycomb, following Jem's death (reflecting the death of Lee's real brother).
She considers her father to be the moral compass, or "watchman," of the town, but is shocked to see him embracing racists and their views. Like many Southern politicians of the 1950s and '60s, he tries to justify it by saying he's trying to slow down federal government intervention into State politics. Her idol is shattered, reduced to the level of a man. Many readers felt the same way, and suggested that Lee, now elderly and infirm, had done the same to their Atticus, whom they could only see as the kindly Gregory Peck.
Harper Lee died less than a year later, on February 19, 2016, at the age of 89.
*
July 11, 1960 was a Monday. There was only one score on this historic day. From 1958 to 1962, Major League Baseball held 2 All-Star Games every season. This was the 1st, at Kansas City Municipal Stadium, and the National League beat the American League, 5-3.
The starting pitchers were Bob Friend of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who became the winning pitcher; and Bill Monbouquette of the Boston Red Sox, who became the losing pitcher. Home runs were hit by Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs, Del Crandall of the Milwaukee Braves, and Al Kaline of the Detroit Tigers.
Two days later, another All-Star Game was played, at Yankee Stadium. The NL won that one, too, 6-0.
No comments:
Post a Comment