[ Harper Lee & Truman Capote ]

If there is one Southern writer I love as much as Flannery O'Connor, it's Harper Lee. Most of us have, or will have to read To Kill a Mockingbird in a high school English class. But I think TKM is better enjoyed alone. The tedious over-analysis and chapter questions can taint what is unquestionably one of the most brilliant American (and Southern) novels ever written.

Harper Lee was born in 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama, and is a descendant of Civil war general, Robert E. Lee. She studied law at the University of Alabama, and spent a year studying as an exchange student at Oxford. She never completed law school, and moved to New York to pursue a career as a writer.

To Kill a Mockingbird began as a short story. Lee's literary agent convinced her to expand the story, and the result is the prize-winning novel we know and love. TKM is set in the 1930's, in Maycomb, Alabama. It tells the story of Atticus Finch, a lawyer who defends a black man accused of raping a white girl. Told from the perspective of Finch's daughter, Scout, it's also the story of a small town's struggle with questions of morality, racism, and social responsibility. The writing itself is beautifully crafted. Lee was obsessed with the craft of writing and the precision of language. But the writing in TKM does not outshine the characters, who take hold of you in a way that's impossible to describe.

To Kill a Mockingbird was on the Bestseller List for eighty (yes, 80) weeks. In 1961, Harper Lee won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She never wrote another novel and returned to her hometown of Monroeville. But TKM remains part of the canon of American literature.

To Kill a Mockingbird also plays an important role in Beautiful Creatures. No spoliers – you'll have to read BC to find out what the connection is for yourself, but you will be able to tell how much Margie and I love the novel.

If you haven't read To Kill a Mockingbird, buy a copy now. To learn more about Harper Lee's life, you can read Mockingbird by Charles J. Shields.

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Favorite Harper Lee Quotes:

"Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."    – To Kill a Mockingbird

"The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think."  – To Kill a Mockingbird

"I want to do the best I can with the talent God gave me. I hope to
goodness that every novel I do gets better and better. In other words
all I want to be is the Jane Austin of south Alabama."          – Harper Lee

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Regional Recipes:

Whistlestop Cafe's Fried Green Tomatoes Recipe

Chocolate Pound Cake Recipe

Mamaw's Alabama Chocolate Pound Cake Recipe