July 11th 1960: To Kill a Mockingbird published
On this day in 1960, the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was published by J.B Lippincott & Co. The novel tells the story of the trial of a young African-American man in Alabama in the 1930s, and is told from the perspective of the daughter of the defendant’s lawyer, Scout Finch. Lee was partly inspired by events she recalled from her own childhood growing up in Alabama in the days of Jim Crow segregation. To Kill a Mockingbird was released during a turbulent time for American race relations, as the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement was beginning to get underway with sit-ins and Freedom Rides in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The novel was originally going to be called ‘Atticus’ for Scout’s father and the moral centre of the story, but was renamed for one of Atticus’s iconic lines. The novel was an immediate success, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. In 1962 it was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Gregory Peck and featuring the film debut of Robert Duvall as the elusive Boo Radley. The influence of To Kill a Mockingbird has never faded in the 55 years since its release, and is a favourite of many for its warmth and humour while tackling some of the most troubling issues of its day. Harper Lee has lived a reclusive life, and until this year had only published one novel. However, on July 14th 2015, Lee’s original version of To Kill a Mockingbird - which saw an adult Scout visit her father Atticus in the 1950s - will be published as Go Set a Watchman.
“Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird”
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