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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. Harper Lee never published another novel and
remains reclusive from the press, though she was awarded the Presidential Medal
of Freedom in 2007. The influence of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ has never faded in
the 54 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.
"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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