Mockingbird (58 page)

Lee and Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch on the production set. Lee doubted his suitability for the role at first—she had Spencer Tracy in mind.
(Corbis)

Alice Lee, Nelle's elder sister, an attorney and editor of the local newspaper like her father. Though petite, her nickname in the family was Bear.
(The United Methodist Church)

During a meeting of the National Council of the Arts in Tarrytown, New York, 1966, some of the members take a break. (Back to front) Nelle Lee; Roger Stevens, Broadway impresario; R. Philip Hanes, business executive; Agnes de Mille, dancer and choreographer.
(Photograph courtesy of R. Philip Hanes)

Nelle Lee attends Celebration of a Decade, a Los Angeles Public Library Awards Dinner held in her honor in 2005.
(Corbis)

A worker prepares the earth in the Lee family burial plot, located in Monroeville's Old Methodist Cemetery, a few minutes' walk from the famous courthouse.
(AP Photo)

Praise for
Mockingbird

“If there is a great American novel, certainly
To Kill a Mockingbird
is it. But, for all of us who love it, its author has always been an enigma. Did Harper Lee really write this classic? And if she did, why didn't she ever write another book? And who is Harper Lee, anyway? Finally, a writer has done the necessary research to reveal the surprising answers. To every
To Kill a Mockingbird
reader, I send this message: The story isn't over. There's so much more to come, and you'll find it all in Charles Shields' delightful and insightful
Mockingbird
.”

—H
OMER
H
ICKAM
, author of
Rocket Boys

“A worthwhile portrait of the artist.”

—J
ANET
M
ASLIN
,
The New York Times

“As readable, convincing and engrossing as Lee's literary wonder.”

—
Orlando Sentinel

“Lively, absorbing.
Mockingbird
reads briskly.… If you treasure Scout, one of literature's more endearing characters, you'll like the woman who emerges in
Mockingbird
.”

—
The Miami Herald

“A literary portrait that could stand as definitive for years to come.… The portraits Shields presents will captivate those who enjoy
To Kill a Mockingbird
in print or on film.”

—
The Tennessean

“An impressively unauthorized biography of the famously reclusive author.”

—New York
magazine

“Shields has been enterprising [in his research]. He offers the book as a kind of homemade present.”

—The New Yorker

“Harper Lee caught the beauty of America with
To Kill a Mockingbird
, but has remained something of a mystery ever since.
Charles J. Shields
's portrait of her,
Mockingbird
, shows us a quietly reclusive, down-to-earth woman with an enormous gift and documents her struggle to live with that gift for the rest of her life. Shields's evocation of both the woman and her beautiful, sleepy, and smoldering South are pitch perfect.”

—A
NNE
R
IVERS
S
IDDONS
, author of
Sweetwater Creek
and other books

“This biography impresses for both its breadth and depth.… Comprehensive, readable and fascinating.”

—
The Buffalo News

“The chief value of
Mockingbird
—and it is an extraordinarily important one—is Mr. Shields' meticulous and fascinating account of how Ms. Lee came to write her novel.”

—
The New York Sun

“This biography will not disappoint those who loved the novel and the feisty, independent, fiercely loyal Scout, in whom Harper Lee put so much of herself.”

—G
ARRISON
K
EILLOR
,
The New York Times Book Review

“With a journalist's healthy appetite for research, Shields has unearthed every article and archive mentioning Harper Lee. He susses out which characters from
To Kill a Mockingbird
correspond to Lee's childhood, and he's included useful civil rights history. His portrayal of Lee's brusque personality and socially eccentric ways as a [university] student and humorist help explain her unorthodox individuality later in life.”

—
San Francisco Chronicle

“A work that all future biographies of Harper Lee will need to consult for its many commendable aspects.”

—
The Washington Times

“Captivating.”

—
The Denver Post

“Highly readable … This is an easy sell.”

—
Daily News
(New York)

“Admirable …
Mockingbird
makes the reader look at Harper Lee with new and respectful eyes.”

—
USA Today

“Harper Lee's intense personal privacy sets daunting limitations for a biographer, but Charles Shields has ingeniously recovered the feel of her childhood world of Monroeville, Alabama, and the small-town Southern customs and vivid personalities that shaped her prickly independence. Detailed memories of Lee's classmates and friends are interwoven with dramatic recreations of key events and stories of her friendships and literary collaborations, all fleshing out the general narrative of her development as a novelist. Close attention to her friendship with Truman Capote and the conditions of the writing and then the filming of
To Kill a Mockingbird
offer special fascination.”

—L
OUISE
W
ESTLING
, professor emerita, University of Oregon, author of
Sacred Groves and Ravaged Gardens: The Fiction of Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, and Flannery O'Connor

“A superb biography.”

—W
ILLIAM
G
IRALDI
,
The New Republic

“Entertaining and enlightening.”

—
The Dallas Morning News

“A must-read.”

—
NEA Today

“Shields earns As for effort and for his evocation of the Depression-era South.”

—
Bookpage

“An informative and genial biography that literary fiction lovers will flock to.”

—
Booklist

“An affectionate biography.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“A well-written profile.”

—
Library Journal

“A moving story … Shields has a lilting style and a way of inventively filling the gaps without resorting to fabrication. It's nice to imagine Lee, who knows a good human story when she sees one, stepping outside of herself and admiring his achievement.”

—
C-ville Weekly

 

About the Author

C
HARLES
J. S
HIELDS
'
S
biography of Harper Lee, the first ever published, became a
New York Times
bestseller, a Literary Guild Selection, and a Book-of-the-Month Club Alternate. His young adult biography of Harper Lee,
I Am Scout
(Owl 2008; reprinted 2015), was chosen as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year, and a Junior Literary Guild Selection. In 2011, Shields published
And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut, A Life
(Holt), a
New York Times
and
Washington Post
notable nonfiction book of the year.

He and his wife, Guadalupe, reside in Charlottesville, Virginia. You can sign up for email updates
here
.

 

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