Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Happy Birthday, Harper Lee!

Harper Lee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Nelle Harper Lee (born April 28, 1926) is an American author known for her 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom of the United States for her contribution to literature in 2007.[1]"

I still remember reading To Kill A Mockingbird for the first time 50 years ago. It remains one of my favorite books.

3 comments:

Dan said...

Yeah, that's a book that stays whicha. I enjoyed it at age 14, but coming back to it a lifetime later, I discovered depths of humor and hidden meaning (including Lee's portrait of young Truman Capote) that made it a whole new experience.

Unknown said...

At the time I first read the book, I had no idea that Dill was based on Capote. I probably didn't even know who Capote was.

Dwight Brown said...

I'm pretty sure I had read In Cold Blood by the time I read TKAM (my mother had ICB in one of those two volume mystery collections that you got from the Book Club, and I was an odd child), but I don't think I picked up on the the Capote thing either.

And it wasn't until many years later - actually, it was Joe R. Landsdale his own self who I found this out from - that Harper Lee was Capote's research assistant on that book.