Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird and Beyond
If your literary reputation hangs on one book, To Kill a Mockingbird is about as good as it gets.
Harper Lee’s 1960 masterpiece won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with a compelling tale of racial injustice and courtroom drama. It has sold more than 40 million copies. It was the late Alabama native’s only published novel until Go Set a Watchman, an early version of To Kill a MockingBird, came out in 2015.
Harper Lee Travel Tips
Visit the Monroe County Museum in Harper Lee’s native Monroeville, Alabama. It contains a special exhibition on the author, including a documentary where locals share their memories of Lee and the making of the 1962 To Kill a Mockingbird movie, starring Oscar winner Gregory Peck as lawyer Atticus Finch. Art director Henry Bumstead’s storyboard drawings for the movie are also featured.
In Monroeville, snap a photo of A Celebration of Reading, a bronze sculpture by Alabama artist Branko Medenica. Stationed in front of the courthouse where Harper Lee’s father practiced law, it shows three kids reading To Kill a Mockingbird.
Catch a two-hour play of To Kill a Mockingbird at the courthouse in Monroeville in April and May. The first act takes place outside and the second act is inside.
One of Harper Lee’s favorite restaurants was David’s Catfish House, which boasts multiple locations in Alabama and Florida. The restaurant’s specialties include catfish filet, firecracker shrimp, and coleslaw.
If you’re a baseball fan, you might be surprised to learn that Harper Lee was a big fan of the New York Mets. She’s been described as “passionately devoted,” “rabid,” and having “an underdog thing.” Head to Citi Field in the New York borough of Queens to attend a Mets game.