Description

Contributors:

Mary McDonagh Murphy
Wally Lamb
Mary Badham
Boaty Boatright
Rick Bragg
Tom Brokaw
The Reverend Thomas Lane Butts
Roseanne Cash
Mark Childress
Jane Ellen Clark
Allan Gurganus
David Kipen
Alice Finch Lee
Diane McWhorter
Jon Meacham
Allison Moorer
James Patterson
Anna Quindlen
Richard Russo
Lizzie Skurnick
Lee Smith
Adriana Trigiani
Mary Tucker
Scott Turow
Oprah Winfrey
Andrew Young

To Kill a Mockingbird may well be our national novel. It is the first adult novel that many of us remember reading, one book that millions of us have in common. It sells nearly a million copies a year, more than any other twentieth-century American classic. Harper Lee's first and only novel, published in July 1960, is a beloved classic and touchstone in American literary and social history.

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird, Mary McDonagh Murphy reviews its history and examines how the novel has left its mark on a broad range of novelists, historians, journalists, and artists.

In compelling interviews, Anna Quindlen, Tom Brokaw, Oprah Winfrey, James Patterson, James McBride, Scott Turow, Wally Lamb, Andrew Young, Richard Russo, Adriana Trigiani, Rick Bragg, Jon Meacham, Allan Gurganus, Diane McWhorter, Lee Smith, Rosanne Cash, and others reflect on when they first read the novel, what it means to them—then and now—and how it has affected their lives and careers. Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a lively appreciation of the many ways in which the novel has made—and continues to make—a difference to generations of readers.

Harper Lee has not given an interview since 1964, but Murphy's reporting, research, and rare interviews with the author's sister and friends stitch together a brief history of how the novel, as well as the acclaimed 1962 movie, came to be.

Contributors: Mary McDonagh Murphy Wally Lamb Mary Badham Boaty Boatright Rick Bragg Tom Brokaw The Reverend Thomas Lane Butts Roseanne Cash Mark Childress Jane Ellen Clark Allan Gurganus David Kipen Alice Finch Lee Diane McWhorter Jon Meacham Allison Moorer James Patterson Anna Quindlen Richard Russo Lizzie Skurnick Lee Smith Adriana Trigiani Mary Tucker Scott Turow Oprah Winfrey Andrew Young To Kill a Mockingbird may well be our national novel. It is the first adult novel that many of us remember reading, one book that millions of us have in common. It sells nearly a million copies a year, more...  Read More