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To Kill A Mockingbird celebrates its 50 years

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

This week sees the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee’s famous novel about racism in the Deep South. So many schoolchildren read this as part of their Literary lessons, but I wonder how many realise the enormous effect it had in helping to quash segregation in America – and how much of the book was based on Harper Lee’s own unhappy home-life.
Nowadays, could a debut novel ever garner so much worldwide love and attention? And would there be more support for the author if it did? With so much worldwide acclaim and unwished-for attention, the pressure Harper Lee must have felt under to write another, equally successful book must have been unimaginable. In the end, a second book never came.

People often say the life of a writer is a lonely one, but for Harper Lee this seems to have been taken to an extreme and she has spent much of the last 50 years living as a recluse. So this week, while the world celebrates her inspirational work, spare a thought for the author, who, it’s said, will be by herself inside her apartment.

Keen to revisit the classic? Enjoy an excerpt from To Kill a Mockingbird read by Sissy Spacek and enter Lovereading’s Competition to win a special cloth-bound anniversary edition of the book.

Louise Watson, Editor

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