Harper Lee, author of the modern classic “To Kill a Mockingbird” has died today at the age of 89. Her death was confirmed by spokeswoman for the mayor’s office in Monroeville her hometown and the inspiration for Maycomb, the setting for Mockingbird. Since the publication of Mockingbird in 1961, Lee has been something of an enigma, rising quickly to fame and winning a Pulitzer for the work while simultaneously staying almost completely out of the public eye and vowing, until last year, not to publish anything else.
Mockingbird helped change the tone of the race conversation in America, being published in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, and the book remains relevant even today.
It’s a book that most of us are made to read at some point in our schooling and perhaps grasp only pieces of it, it begs being read again. If you haven’t cracked the spine of that particular tome perhaps now is the time to remember the characters, the story, and the message that Lee provided.
Those close to Lee have stated that even recently she was in good health and good spirits, though she had spent the last several years in assisted living. Despite being a very personal person with little ambition to engage with the public, it’s hard not to feel the loss. Lee was able to capture the feeling of racial tensions in the South, making them human, giving them a name and a face, and that’s something that we all sorely need.
Last year saw the release of a sequel of sorts titled “Go Set a Watchman.” In truth, Watchman was the first draft of Mockingbird that had initially been rejected by publishers before being retooled and released as Mockingbird. It offers a version of the characters in a different time and with different feelings on the issue of race. Specifically the character of Scout’s dad Atticus Finch is less a hero of the black community in their fictionalized town and more a veiled supporter of the Jim Crow laws of the time.
While at times it conflicts with some of Mockingbird, Watchman gives a glimpse into the literary process of a writer who otherwise was veiled in privacy. Her works touched on an important narrative of American history as well as the hearts of generations of readers. She will be missed.