New Harper Lee novel has Midlands readers excited to ‘revisit old friends’
When news began to spread earlier this year that a second Harper Lee novel had been found and would be published – setting off the literary equivalent of an earthquake – fans were excited if not a little bit amazed.
“Excited is an understatement,” says Frank Baker, who has read not only “To Kill a Mockingbird” but just about everything he can get his hands on about the reclusive 89-year-old author herself.
Baker, a media education consultant who specializes in media literacy, is not only an avid reader of all things Lee but has been a longtime fan of the movie of “To Kill a Mockingbird” itself. He’s even designed a study guide available at his website, www.frankwbaker.com, to help educators teach the film.
“I was maybe eight years old when the film came to Columbia,” Baker recalls. “I remember being scared (during the scene) when Jem and Scout were in the woods.”
A former board member for The Nickelodeon theater, Baker recently loaned a film poster he scored off eBay years ago to the Main Street theater. The poster will be on display during a showing of the film July 12 through July 14. It’s all part of the excitement over a book that has meant so many things to so many people.
For Heather Green, who reads the book every year, the experience is mainly nostalgic.
“It’s kind of like revisiting old friends,” says the librarian, a manager at Richland Library’s Cooper branch.
For years, Green re-read the same copy she’d read as a seventh-grader when the book was required reading for her English class. But eventually the copy became so worn out, its pages falling apart, she was forced to recycle it. The strong sense of character development – especially the relationship young Scout, the book’s narrator, has with her lawyer father, Atticus – is one of the things that originally drew her to the story.
“You fell in love with them,” she says. “I know I did.”
And the book, she says, not only has numerous “life lessons” but deals with a range of issues – from social injustice and racial inequality to class and gender issues.
Green, who took her 8-year-old son with her to Charleston to pay her respects the Friday after the Emanuel AME Church shootings, says it’s hard to ignore that the same themes Lee wrote about when the book was published in 1960 are still with us today – making “To Kill a Mockingbird” more relevant than ever.
“Humanity is humanity,” Green says, recounting what Atticus says to Scout in Chapter 3 of the book. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. … until you climb into his skin and walk around it.”
It’s an important lesson to exemplify, says the mother of two. “That even if we knew them or not, it’s important to walk around in their skin. See how you would feel.”
“Go Set a Watchman” is due in stores beginning July 14. The Richland Libray will have hard copies, electronic versions and audio books available.
Reach Lucas at (803) 771-8362.
In Their Own Words
With Harper Lee’s second book due out this week, we asked Midlands readers to tell us what “To Kill a Mockingbird” meant to them. Here is what some of you said:
“I read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ in the seventh grade. It wasn’t assigned for English class and I had never heard of it. However, I saw the boy I had a crush on with a copy and fortunately my teacher had another on her bookshelf. I was quickly pulled into the book and almost forgot why I picked it up in the first place.”
Mary Kessler, 39, In-home caregiver, Columbia
Joshua Burke
“I am ten years old. About six months ago, I read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ with my father, and then we watched the movie. I really liked the book much better. I was not used to this kind of grown-up story, but I really liked that it was told from Scout’s point of view. She was about my age and was a lot like me. The story was about how Atticus Finch represented a poor, African-American man named Tom Robinson, but that Tom was found guilty for something he did not do. It showed how badly African-Americans were treated during that time period by Southern white people. The story made me think more about poor people and how they have been treated. It makes me want to help African-Americans more and contribute to local charities. I feel horribly about how they were treated in the past.”
Joshua Burke, 10, homeschooler/ rising fifth grader, West Columbia
“Harper Lee’s breakthrough freshman novel has had a profound effect on both my personal life and long professional career as a school teacher in New York. My first recollection of the story was when I was a boy and read the Readers Digest Condensed Books version. That was over 50 years ago!
When I became a junior high English teacher in the early ’70s, I began teaching it to my ninth graders. I taught the novel for 15 consecutive years. By my calculation, I must have read the story in excess of 75 times. It never failed to enthrall me with Lee’s unique storytelling style and knack for capturing the essence of the times in Deep South Alabama. Maycomb has forever been ingrained in my mind as the quintessential small Southern town peopled by some of the most memorable characters in literature ... Not only Atticus, Scout, Jem and Dill, but who can ever forget Tom, Miss Maudie, Boo, Aunt Alexandra and Mrs. Dubose, not to mention the likes of Bob and Mayella Ewell?
Alan Poquette
When I learned of the imminent publication of “Go Set a Watchman,” I rushed to the bookstore to reserve my copy. I can’t wait till it comes! I have never more eagerly awaited a book as much as this one!”
Alan Poquette, 64, retired language arts teacher of 40 years, Columbia
For as long as I can remember, two books have occupied a special place on my bedside table: The Holy Bible and “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The Bible comforts and encourages me as the source of truth and the origin of my faith. It knows no boundaries as the ultimate guidebook for persons from all walks of life.
In a similar fashion, I am drawn to “Mockingbird,” for the beautiful way it illustrates the Biblical principles of showing love and respect for all mankind. Thus, to say that I am intrigued by both the novel by Harper Lee and its movie adaptation, is putting it mildly. I have read “Mockingbird” and viewed the movie many times – and with each encounter, I discover new revelations to support the novel and the film as iconic masterpieces for standing the test of time.
My first introduction to “Mockingbird” came with the release of the movie in the early 1960s, in Greenwood, S.C., at our local movie theatre, or “picture show,” as we referred to it back then. I can vividly remember paying only a quarter for my ticket, and wondering why the moviemakers had chosen to present this film in black and white, as opposed to the then popular, Technicolor.
I also had no idea how lucky I was, as a child of eight, to see a movie of this caliber in the “pre-rating” era. Looking back, the movie I watched as a child was, for me, a very entertaining “coming of age” story of a young girl, named “Scout,” with whom I could easily identify. Yes, Scout quickly became my hero and favorite movie actress!
However, as a naive child, little did I know that this great story would go on to become Lee’s vehicle for teaching me how the love, tolerance, and respect engendered by the Bible was being demonstrated using characters from all facets of society. As I matured as a reader and thinker, I saw how creatively Lee reveals the overwhelming power of goodness for defeating evil in her dialogue and incredible use of symbolism.
The novel and film are set in the Deep South during the Depression, and were released at the height of the Civil Rights movement. Then, like now, issues of race and socioeconomic status plagued society. Atticus is introduced as a wise and respected lawyer, and a gentle and loving father to Scout and her brother, Jem. As the plot revolves around Atticus’ defending Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman, Lee shows how harmful racial injustice, social prejudice, and pre-conceived gender and cultural stereotyping can be.
After many years of reading Lee’s novel and watching the movie, I believe that like Scout, I too, have “come of age” by witnessing the ways the powerful truths set forth by this story have surfaced and have been proven throughout my life. Perhaps Atticus says it best when he teaches Scout and Jem that really knowing a man is “walking in his shoes.”
In 2014, I had the pleasure of meeting Mary Badham, who plays “Scout” in the movie, when she came to Columbia for a presentation. I shared my appreciation to her for the joy and inspiration her portrayal of Scout has brought to me and to so many people throughout the world. I told her of my fascination with “Mockingbird,” and how I look forward to Lee’s sequel, “Go Set a Watchman,” as becoming the third book to occupy a special place on my bedside table.
Gayle S. Stewart of Columbia
When I was eight years old I first viewed Gregory Peck in “To Kill a Mockingbird” Prior, to that time I had only watched movies like “The Wizard of Oz,” Mary Poppins,and “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Needless to say, I was mesmerized by the film and the great sense of character it embodied. From that moment on, I was determined to become a trial attorney.
In 1983 I got to join the ranks of “Atticus Finch” when I was sworn into the South Carolina Bar. My work as a litigator has taken me into courtrooms all over the country including the territory of Guam. In 2006 I was involved in a nationally televised case involving a registered sex offender working at Walmart who molested a 10-year-old girl inside a Columbia WalMart store.
As we were picking the jury the trial judge allowed an attorney, whose law firm had recently represented Walmart, serve on the jury. We strongly objected. I was convinced we could not win the little girl’s case with this jury.
I remembered Atticus Finch’s definition of courage: “Courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what!” We saw it through! I lost the case.
Today, Walmart performs criminal background checks and no longer employs registered sex offenders. All because a little girl and her mom had the courage to see it through and because their Attorney watched “To Kill a Mockingbird” at age 8! Thank You Harper Lee!!!
David Massey of Columbia
Children do not come with instructions. So, when 18 years ago I became a new and naïve father, I sought out role models for how to parent, how to be a wise, loving, and very present father. Among those I found was Harper Lee’s Atticus Finch, portrayed so poignantly and with such dignity by Gregory Peck in the film version of “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Many times in my role as a father I have thought consciously of Atticus and tried to emulate his calm in the face of crisis, his understated passion for right, and the wonderful relationship he had with Jem and Scout.
When I first saw the film, his children calling their father by his first name struck me; but, in time, I realized that they did so because they were close to him and they did so because he was a man who, rather than demanding respect, commanded it. No title was necessary.
Eighteen years later I still have no instruction manual for parenting my son. Most people say, however, that he has turned out to be a fine young man. Whatever part this father may have had in rearing him to claim the noble aspects of his character and the bright confidence of his carriage, I owe, in part, to keeping Atticus Finch on retainer.
Wayne Kannaday, Columbia
Someone in my family brought home a copy of the book and I picked it up one day. It was the summer of 1967 and I was 11 years old. I opened it and read a passage in the middle about Boo Radley and it was intriguing and scary enough to make me want to start at the beginning and try to read the whole thing.
There were parts that I didn’t understand. I remember reading about Mrs. Dubose and wondering what morphine was and why someone would be addicted to it. I didn’t completely understand was rape was although I knew it was bad. I could not comprehend the type of racism and fear that led to Tom Robinson being accused and convicted of a crime when he was so obviously innocent.
But I was able to get through the whole book and enjoy reading it. It was the first time in my life that I looked forward to each day’s reading time and to seeing how the story would unfold. It has been pointed out that part of genius of the book is how it is told through the eyes of a child, and how the first-person narrative by Scout makes it accessible and appealing to younger readers. This was true for me.
That fall I would be entering the sixth grade at Cayce Grammar School, which had been integrated the year before. Only a few African-American students came at first, and others followed later. I still didn’t understand why some in our community reacted with the same bitter racism and hatred that I had seen in the book. But now I also had the example of how Atticus treated everyone with respect, no matter the race or background, and did what was right even when others didn’t. That lesson still resonates with me today.
The book was perfect for its time and place in my life and it helped me to navigate into adulthood with greater understanding and conviction. Count me among the many for whom reading this book was a life-altering event.
Lex McDonald of Columbia
This book taught me what it meant to do what is right, instead of what is easy; to protect the maligned, and to be an example to one’s children in thought, word and deed.
Beth Crawford
“TKAM” taught me, in my first year of teaching, in 1966, to immediately define a classic work of literature as multi-layered in that you can read it a number of times, at different stages of one’s life, and discover new meanings, insights, nuances.
One of my seventh-graders recommended that we all read “TKAM” and I still savor the oral reports. Some stuffed encyclopedias and bird books under the overhead projector and then a USA map to show the five states – Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas – with the mockingbird as the state bird.
Others displayed home-drawn maps of Jem and Scout’s “summer boundaries” and then read the paragraphs where one’s boundaries are limited or expanded by growing up, by one’s education or lack thereof, by one’s society and one’s geography….and what one learns in and out of school. All read paragraphs and told why they were touched by “TKAM”’s words, imagery, symbolism and story telling.
I shared the study guide we’d developed with my grad school colleague who taught 12th grade while we worked to complete our master’s degrees at Black Hills State University in South Dakota. I was hired to teach freshman English, where we compared book vs. film versions of best sellers and classics. I lobbied that “TKAM” and its Gregory Peck film version be part of the curriculum and was taught a valuable lesson as one of the students stormed from class on the way to the Dean to get her money back or a new professor.
She had read the book in my friend’s class – with my study guide – and a high school book was just NOT appropriate for college… I won her over by invoking the magic words “extra credit” – re-read “TKAM” and see if she saw something she did not see the first time.
She became a staunch supporter of the definition of a classic: a book one can read over and over and new insights find you with each new reading.
Now, as this celebration of Harper Lee’s new work begins, “TKAM” teaches me how relevant it is to the human condition and its capture of “man’s inhumanity to man.”
Mother Emanuel’s 9 are mockingbirds and the racist shooter the rabid dog that The Law, as symbolized by Atticus, will deal with.
I am sadly shocked that she described the 1930s police killing of an unarmed black prisoner in “TKAM” that went unpunished and that such killing of mockingbirds continues but are now starting to be punished.
I will dedicate my re-reading of “TKAM” to the memory of the nine Charleston mockingbirds as I await my Kindle download of Harper Lee’s new book. I predict new insights into the kindness and potential of humanity will be taught and juxtaposed with humanity’s capacity to crassly kill innocent songbirds.
As Harper Lee and the beautiful Mother Emmanuel family have taught us all, slowly and painfully there are good people-mockingbirds working to be, as a black college in Columbia, SC, across the street from the AME sponsored Allen University says, “a power for good” in society.
George Redman
To join in the conversation, check The State’s Facebook page Sunday, to see what others are saying about the book.
Who is Harper Lee?
Born in Monroeville, Ala., in 1926, Nelle Harper Lee is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning best-seller, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Lee’s father, a former newspaper editor and proprietor, was a lawyer and member of the Alabama state legislature for a time, while her mother suffered from mental illness and rarely left home.
Like Scout, the book’s young narrator, Lee was something of a tomboy but was also a precocious reader. Her childhood friend, the writer Truman Capote, later became the inspiration for the character Dill.
In high school, Lee developed an interest in English literature and after graduating, she attended the all-female Huntingdon College in Montgomery. According to The New Yorker, Lee dropped out of the University of Alabama in 1948 – the year Capote published his first book – and moved to New York City shortly after to write a novel of her own.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” was, up until recently, her only published work.
According to its publisher, Lee’s new book, “Go Set a Watchman,” was submitted before “To Kill a Mockingbird” and was assumed lost but was discovered in 2014. Now due out in bookstores Tuesday, “Go Set a Watchman” features many of the characters from “To Kill a Mockingbird” some ¨20 years later. Jean Louise Finch, or Scout, returns home to visit her father, Atticus, and “struggles with issues both personal and political, involving Atticus, society and the small Alabama town that shaped her,” the website notes.
The debut of “Go Set a Watchman” is being called an historic literary event.
Book review: “Go Set A Watchman”
Sources: biography.com and The New Yorker
The Movie
Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” was translated to film in 1962 by Horton Foote. Starring Gregory Peck as Atticus, Mary Badham as Scout and a then unknown Robert Duvall in his debut role of Boo Radley, “To Kill a Mockingbird” won Academy Awards for Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Art Direction.
The Nickelodeon will show the film July 12-14. Get tickets early, as some shows might be sold out. For more information, visit: http://nickelodeon.org/.
This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 1:03 PM.