Etta McQuade will give a presentation on Mark Twain for the R.E.A.D. Book Group on Thursday, January 6th at 10:00 a.m. Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend.
Etta is a gifted reviewer and presenter. She will be sharing insight into Mark Twain's life and will share some of his writings as well as books written about him.
Samuel Clemens or Mark Twain
On Nov. 30, 1835, the small town of Florida, Mo. witnessed the birth of its most famous son. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was welcomed into the world as the sixth child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens. Little did John and Jane know, their son Samuel would one day be known as Mark Twain - America's most famous literary icon.
Approximately four years after his birth, in 1839, the Clemens family moved 35 miles east to the town of Hannibal. A growing port city that lies along the banks of the Mississippi, Hannibal was a frequent stop for steam boats arriving by both day and night from St. Louis and New Orleans.
Samuel's father was a judge, and he built a two-story frame house at 206 Hill Street in 1844. As a youngster, Samuel was kept indoors because of poor health. However, by age nine, he seemed to recover from his ailments and joined the rest of the town's children outside. He then attended a private school in Hannibal.
Samuel Clemens' childhood home.
When Samuel was 12, his father died of pneumonia, and at 13, Samuel left school to become a printer's apprentice. After two short years, he joined his brother Orion's newspaper as a printer and editorial assistant. It was here that young Samuel found he enjoyed writing.
At 17, he left Hannibal behind for a printer's job in St. Louis. While in St. Louis, Clemens became a river pilot's apprentice. He became a licensed river pilot in 1858. Clemens' pseudonym, Mark Twain, comes from his days as a river pilot. It is a river term which means two fathoms or 12-feet when the depth of water for a boat is being sounded. "Mark twain" means that is safe to navigate.
Because the river trade was brought to a stand still by the Civil War in 1861, Clemens began working as a newspaper reporter for several newspapers all over the United States. In 1870, Clemens married Olivia Langdon, and they had four children, one of whom died in infancy and two who died in their twenties. Their surviving child, Clara, lived to be 88, and had one daughter. Clara's daughter died without having any children, so there are no direct descendants of Samuel Clemens living.
Twain began to gain fame when his story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County" appeared in the New York Saturday Press on November 18, 1865. Twain's first book, "The Innocents Abroad," was published in 1869, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" in 1876, and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" in 1885. He wrote 28 books and numerous short stories, letters and sketches.
Twain's last work was his autobiography, which he dictated and thought would be most entertaining if he went off on whims and tangents in non-chronological order.
In 1909, Twain is quoted as saying:
I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'
His prediction was accurate – Twain died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910, in Redding, Connecticut, one day after the comet's closest approach to Earth.
Mark Twain has a following still today. His childhood home is open to the public as a museum in Hannibal, and Calavaras County in California holds the Calavaras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee every third weekend in May. Walking tours are given in New York City of places Twain visited near his birthday every year.
Just this week Mark Twain has been in the news again. Huckleberry Finn is the fourth most banned book in America because of words that some find offensive. NewSouth Books in Alabama have decided to release a new volume which replaces those words with others which are more acceptable in their eyes. There has been quite a debate over it. You can read more about it here . We would love to know your opinion. Leave a comment and let us know what you think.
Watch for an upcoming post about the R.E.A.D. Book Group discussion.
On October 7th Yara Wilson reviewed the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley for the R.E.A.D. Book Group. The review and the discussion afterward were enjoyed by all who attended.
Frankenstein is the perfect spooky read for the month of October. It was first published in 1818 and has been in print ever since. This classic story tells of the epic battle between man and monster as it reaches its greatest pitch. In trying to create life, the young student Victor Frankenstein unleashes forces beyond his control, setting into motion a long and tragic chain of events that brings Victor himself to the very brink. How he tries to destroy his creation, as it destroys everything Victor loves, is a powerful story of love, friendship …and horror.
The subtitle to Frankenstein is The Modern Promethius. In Greek mythology, Promethius is a Titan who became a hero to humankind because he stole fire from the gods and gave it to men.
The author of Frankenstein, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, lived a very interesting and tragic life.
Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Her mother died from giving birth to her. She and her older half-sister, Fanny, were raised by their father. He father never fully forgave Mary for causing her mother's death. When Mary was four, her father married his neighbor, Mary Jane Clairmont. He provided his daughter with a rich, if informal, education, encouraging her to adhere to his liberalpolitical theories. In 1814, Mary Godwin began a romantic relationship with one of her father’s political followers, the married Percy Bysshe Shelley who was also a poet. Together with Mary's stepsister, Claire, they left for France and travelled through Europe; upon their return to England, Mary was pregnant with Percy's child. Over the next two years, she and Percy faced ostracism, constant debt, and the death of their prematurely born daughter. They married in late 1816 after the suicide of Percy Shelley's first wife, Harriet.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was 18 years old. In 1816 she and her husband, Percy Shelley, spent much time with Lord Byron in Geneva, Switzerland. During the course of their socializing, the suggestion arose that they should each write a ghost story. That is when Mary created the story of Frankenstein. Everyone was so impressed with this tale and they encouraged her to turn it into a full length novel.
Frankenstein was written at the time of scientific discovery. Priestly had discovered oxygen, a vital element of life. Galvani had discovered electricity, the vital spark of life. It was a time when it was felt that the peeling back of a few more layers would uncover the source of life itself. Shelley and Byron discussed 'the principle of life and whether there was any probability of it's ever being discovered'.
The Shelleys left Britain in 1818 for Italy, where their second and third children died before Mary Shelley gave birth to her last and only surviving child, Percy Florence. In 1822, her husband drowned when his sailing boat sank during a storm in the Bay of La Spezia. A year later, Mary Shelley returned to England and from then on devoted herself to the upbringing of her son and a career as a professional author. The last decade of her life was dogged by illness, probably caused by the brain tumour that was to kill her at the age of 53.
Frankenstein's Monster was the result of medical experimentation by Victor Frankenstein, 'a pale student of unhallowed arts', that went badly wrong, using stolen body parts. Frankenstein has become the byword for any monster, especially something artificially created, out of control. It has stood the test of time as a modern parable that man should not attempt to play God, and should he try, his creations will turn upon him.
Frankenstein's monster has undergone a big transformation over the years.
This is one of the first visual depictions of the monster:
Anti-Irish propaganda from Punch magazine, published in May 1882.
Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, and the famous character of Frankenstein's monster have influenced popular culture for at least 100 years. The work has inspired numerous films, television programs, video games and derivative works. The character of the monster remains one of the most recognized icons in horror fiction.
This image is the most famous depiction of Frankenstein.
This is how he is depicted in many of the movie versions.
You might like to watch the 1910 movie version of Frankenstein which was made by Edison Studios.
Along with movies, there are many books that feature the monster or the mythology.
Many artists have come up with their own depictions of Frankenstein such as this illustration by Marek Oleksicki in his graphic novel titled Frankenstein's Womb.
This Dean Koontz series is very popular at the library. The third one in the series,Dead and Alive, is set in New Orleans and was slated to be released right after Hurricane Katrina. The publication was delayed until the summer of 2009, which frustrated a lot of loyal Frankenstein fans.
Graphic novels such as Frankenstein by Elizabeth Genco are based on the novel by Mary Shelley. Young horror fans will enjoy the graphic (not gory) renditions in this one.
Frankenstein even has its own musical! Check it out here. The music is pretty good.
If you plan to read Frankenstein it is helpful to know -
The primary narrator is Robert Walton, who, in his letters, quotes Victor Frankenstein’s first-person narrative at length; Victor, in turn, quotes the monster’s first-person narrative; in addition, the lesser characters Elizabeth Lavenza and Alphonse Frankenstein narrate parts of the story through their letters to Victor.The point of view shifts with the narration, from Robert Walton to Victor Frankenstein to Frankenstein’s monster, then back to Walton. The shifts are not always clear but if you are aware of this it's pretty easy to figure out.
The monster is often referred to as the Demon in the book. Frankenstein is actually Victor Frankenstein, his creator.
Discussion Questions to enhance your reading -
Is Robert Walton's ambition similar to Frankenstein's, as Frankenstein believes?
Why is the fifteen-year-old Frankenstein so impressed with the oak tree destroyed by lightning in a thunderstorm?
Why does Frankenstein become obsessed with creating life?
Why is Frankenstein filled with disgust, calling the monster "my enemy," as soon as he has created him? (p. 62)
What does the monster think his creator owes him? What do you think his responsibilities to the monster are?
Why does Frankenstein agree to create a bride for the monster, then procrastinate and finally break his promise?
Why can't Frankenstein tell anyone—even his father or Elizabeth—why he blames himself for the deaths of William, Justine, and Henry Clerval?
Why doesn't Frankenstein realize that the monster's pledge "I shall be with you on your wedding-night" threatens Elizabeth as well as himself? (p. 173)
Why does Frankenstein find new purpose in life when he decides to seek revenge on the monster "until he or I shall perish in mortal conflict"? (p. 206)
Why are Frankenstein and his monster both ultimately miserable, bereft of human companionship, and obsessed with revenge? Are they in the same situation at the end of the novel?
Why doesn't Walton kill the monster when he has the chance?
For Further Reflection
Was it wrong for Frankenstein to inquire into the origins of life?
What makes the creature a monster rather than a human being?
Is the monster, who can be persuasive, always telling the truth?
Who is the actual monster in Frankenstein?
Frankenstein has many elements of a horror story. What strategies and devices does Shelley use to make the story scary? How does Shelley go beyond the usual horror story elements to focus on characters and the differences between their behaviors, beliefs and values?
One of the novel's tragedies is the inability of characters to recognize the humanity of the creature. What qualities make us human? Which of these qualities does the creature possess? What qualities does he not have?
Scholars sometimes use Frankenstein as an argument against scientific technology that creates life forms; others argue that it is not technology itself but the use to which it is put that presents an ethical problem. What is Shelley's position? What is your position?
Explain the novel's popularity. What makes the novel a classic? How is the story appropriate for today and our society?
The Bookenders Book Group met to talk about To Kill a Mockingbirdby Harper Lee on Wednesday, September 29 for the citywide read. We had a great time. The interesting and insightful discussion led by Carl Sederholm was enjoyed by all who attended. We discussed many things such as Scout's perspective and what that meant for the story, racial relations, why this beloved classic is on the banned books list, the shooting of the rabid dog, small town life, why most children have a Boo Radley, if Tom Robinson was doomed no matter what choice he made and so much more. At one point Katie Marsh wondered about Atticus telling his son to shoot the blue jays and not the mockingbirds. She was confused by this because everything else in Atticus's wisdom and character would not have been ok with shooting the blue jays. That led to more interesting insights into the story and why Atticus would say such a thing.
We also discussed the life of Harper Lee and the information found in the book Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles Shields. We talked about her relationship with Truman Capote and how she helped him with research of his book In Cold Blood. We speculated on why she never wrote another book and wondered if maybe she has written one to be published after her death. Linda Butler pointed out that there is nothing wrong with writing just one really great American novel and that Harper Lee deserves to be proud of that.
One of the very few pictures of Harper Lee and Truman Capote together
After the discussion we served pound cake with mixed berries and whipped topping.
One last thought -
Harper Lee has been very reclusive for years. However, in July 2006 she wrote a letter to Oprah Winfrey which was published in the Oprah magazine. It is a rare published item by her that tells how she became a reader as a child in Depression-era Alabama. This sweet essay shows how much we are missing when we read and discuss biographies written about her. Ultimately we can hope that someday there might be one written in her own words that can tell us of her own thoughts and feelings without speculation.
This is the letter she wrote:
Dear Oprah,
Do you remember when you learned to read, or like me, can you not even remember a time when you didn't know how? I must have learned from having been read to by my family. My sisters and brother, much older, read aloud to keep me from pestering them; my mother read me a story every day, usually a children's classic, and my father read from the four newspapers he got through every evening. Then, of course, it was Uncle Wiggily at bedtime.
So I arrived in the first grade, literate, with a curious cultural assimilation of American history, romance, the Rover Boys, Rapunzel, and The Mobile Press. Early signs of genius? Far from it. Reading was an accomplishment I shared with several local contemporaries. Why this endemic precocity? Because in my hometown, a remote village in the early 1930s, youngsters had little to do but read. A movie? Not often--movies weren't for small children. A park for games? Not a hope. We're talking unpaved streets here, and the Depression.
Books were scarce. There was nothing you could call a public library, we were a hundred miles away from a department store's books section, so we children began to circulate reading material among ourselves until each child had read another's entire stock. There were long dry spells broken by the new Christmas books, which started the rounds again.
As we grew older, we began to realize what our books were worth: Anne of Green Gables was worth two Bobbsey Twins; two Rover Boys were an even swap for two Tom Swifts. Aesthetic frissons ran a poor second to the thrills of acquisition. The goal, a full set of a series, was attained only once by an individual of exceptional greed--he swapped his sister's doll buggy.
We were privileged. There were children, mostly from rural areas, who had never looked into a book until they went to school. They had to be taught to read in the first grade, and we were impatient with them for having to catch up. We ignored them.
And it wasn't until we were grown, some of us, that we discovered what had befallen the children of our African-American servants. In some of their schools, pupils learned to read three-to-one--three children to one book, which was more than likely a cast-off primer from a white grammar school. We seldom saw them until, older, they came to work for us.
Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books. Instant information is not for me. I prefer to search library stacks because when I work to learn something, I remember it.
And, Oprah, can you imagine curling up in bed to read a computer? Weeping for Anna Karenina and being terrified by Hannibal Lecter, entering the heart of darkness with Mistah Kurtz, having Holden Caulfield ring you up--some things should happen on soft pages, not cold metal.
The village of my childhood is gone, with it most of the book collectors, including the dodgy one who swapped his complete set of Seckatary Hawkinses for a shotgun and kept it until it was retrieved by an irate parent.
Now we are three in number and live hundreds of miles away from each other. We still keep in touch by telephone conversations of recurrent theme: "What is your name again?" followed by "What are you reading?" We don't always remember.
Have you seen the movie that is based on the book To Kill a Mockingbird?
It’s rare that a movie captures the magic of a great book, and yet holds its own as a masterpiece of cinema. To Kill a Mockingbird does just that. Released in 1962 it quickly became a much-loved, critically-acclaimed and classic film.
Set in a small Alabama town during the Great Depression, it raises great questions of racism, poverty, ignorance and injustice with enormous grace and emotional power. Moral and deeply humane, the movie is a classic coming-of-age story of childhood innocence lost in the segregated American south.
Gregory Peck stars as Atticus Finch and Brock Peters is Tom Robinson. Newcomers Mary Badham and Phillip Alford star as Scout and Jem.
This film also marked the debut of Robert Duvall as Boo Radley.
The film won 3 Academy Awards out of the 8 it was nominated for. Gregory Peck won for Best Actor. In a 1997 interview Peck said, "Hardly a day passes that I don't think how lucky I was to be cast in that film. I recently sat at a dinner next to a woman who saw it when she was 14 years old, and she said it changed her life. I hear things like that all the time."
Harper Lee and Gregory Peck became great friends. She gave him her father's beloved pocket watch as a gift after playing him in the movie.
The library has To Kill a Mockingbird on DVD and VHS.
Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer's day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Chapter 1 (Scout speaking)
Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 2 (Scout speaking)
You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view--until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 3 (Atticus Finch to daughter Scout)
There are just some kind of men who - who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 5 (Miss Maudie Atkinson speaking)
The sixth grade seemed to please him from the beginning: he went through a brief Egyptian Period that baffled me - he tried to walk flat a great deal, sticking one arm in front of him and one in back of him, putting one foot behind the other. He declared Egyptians walked that way; I said if they did I didn't see how they got anything done, but Jem said they accomplished more than the Americans ever did, they invented toilet paper and perpetual embalming, and asked where would we be today if they hadn't? Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts. ~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 7 (Scout speaking)
When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness' sake. But don't make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion quicker than adults, and evasion simply muddles 'em. ~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 9 (Atticus speaking)
I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year.~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 9 (Scout speaking)
Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 10 (Miss Maudie Atkinson speaking to Scout)
It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived. ~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 11 (Scout speaking)
They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions... but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience. ~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 11 (Atticus speaking)
I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. ~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 11 (Atticus speaking)
She seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl. ~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 12 (Scout speaking)
So it took an eight-year-old child to bring 'em to their senses.... That proves something - that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they're still human. Hmp, maybe we need a police force of children. ~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 16 (Atticus speaking)
I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system - that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality. Gentlemen, a court is no better than each man of you sitting before me on this jury. A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up.~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 20 (speech to the jury by Atticus Finch)
Harper Lee at the courthouse depicted in To Kill a Mockingbird
"I think I'll be a clown when I get grown," said Dill. "Yes, sir, a clown.... There ain't one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I'm gonna join the circus and laugh my head off." "You got it backwards, Dill," said Jem. "Clowns are sad, it's folks that laugh at them." "Well, I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks." ~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 22
The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box. As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash. ~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 23 (Atticus speaking)
I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks. ~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 23 (Scout speaking)
If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time. It's because he wants to stay inside.~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 23 (Jem speaking)
Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me sad.~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 31 (Scout speaking)
We hope everyone is busy readingTo Kill a Mockingbird. We are looking forward to our citywide read discussion at Bookenders book group on Wednesday, September 29th at 7 p.m. Carl Sederholm, a popular professor at Brigham Young University, will lead the discussion on To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Mockingbird: a Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields. Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend.
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. In Scout, Atticus and Boo 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.
This book is a collection of essays written by a wide variety of people, all sharing their thoughts and feelings about the beloved classic. Contributors include Oprah Winfrey, Alice Finch Lee, Tom Brokaw, James McBride, Rosanne Cash and many more. The essays are short and poignant, and tell, very personally, about how the book touched many lives as well as reflected the larger struggle for civil rights in our country. This short volume compiled by Murphy, with a charming forward by Wally Lamb, is chock-full of insightful interviews and musings about one of the most important books of our time.
Mary McDonagh Murphy
Mary McDonagh Murphy has also filmed a documentary titled Hey Boo for the 50th year celebration. To view a clip of that documentary you can click on the button to learn more about the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird at the upper right hand corner of the sidebar. After that, click on the "videos" tab and then you can choose to watch the clip.
We would like to know what you think. Would you agree that To Kill a Mockingbird could be our national novel? Why or why not. Please leave a comment and let us know.
Harper Lee is Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 5, 2007
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird.To view a clip from the upcoming documentary "Hey, Boo: Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird," click here.
Mockingbird: a Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields will be reviewed at R.E.A.D. book group on Thursday, September 2nd at 10 a.m. by Tammra Salisbury. It will also be part of the citywide read discussion at Bookenders book group on Wednesday, September 29th at 7 p.m. Carl Sederholm, a popular professor at Brigham Young University, will lead the discussion on To Kill a Mockingbird and Mockingbird: a Portrait of Harper Lee.
To Kill a Mockingbird—the twentieth century’s most widely read American novel—has sold thirty million copies and still sells a million yearly. Yet despite her book’s perennial popularity, its creator, Harper Lee, has become a somewhat mysterious figure. Now, after years of research, Charles J. Shields brings to life the warmhearted, high-spirited, and occasionally hardheaded woman who gave us two of American literature’s most unforgettable characters—Atticus Finch and his daughter, Scout. At the center of Shields’s evocative, lively book is the story of Lee’s struggle to create her famous novel, but her colorful life contains many highlights—her girlhood as a tomboy in overalls in tiny Monroeville, Alabama; the murder trial that made her beloved father’s reputation and inspired her great work; her journey to Kansas as Truman Capote’s ally and research assistant to help report the story of In Cold Blood. Mockingbird—unique, highly entertaining, filled with humor and heart—is a wide-ranging, idiosyncratic portrait of a writer, her dream, and the place and people whom she made immortal.
It's a perfect book for teens who loved To Kill a Mockingbird and want to find out more about the author.
Charles J Shields
Charles J. Shields spent four years researching and writing Mockingbird. A former English teacher who taught Harper Lee's novel for a number of years, he later became a writer of nonfiction books for young people. For Mockingbird, he interviewed over 600 of Harper Lee's neighbors, childhood friends, law school classmates, and Kansas residents who became her friends while she was there helping Truman Capote research In Cold Blood. As a result of Shields' research into Truman Capote's papers, the papers of Harper Lee's agent, and the archives in the courthouse and historical museum in Lee's hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, information never before known appears in this insightful portrait of the Pulitzer prize-winning author, who stopped giving interviews in 1964. From her beginnings as an Alabama tomboy, to her novel's beginnings as a handful of stories, to a rough draft called Atticus, to its present form as one of the most popular books of the 20th century, the story of To Kill a Mockingbird and its author is told here for the first time.
Shields has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in American history from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, where he was a James Scholar. He lives in central Virginia with his wife, Guadalupe.
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