Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee (Google eBook)

Charles J. Shields

Macmillan, Apr 1, 2007 - Biography & Autobiography - 352 pages

The colorful life of the remarkable woman who created To Kill a Mockingbird—the classic that became a touchstone for generations of Americans

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 the book’s perennial popularity, its creator, Harper Lee has become a somewhat mysterious figure. Now, after years of research, Charles J. Shields has brought 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—and who contributed to the success of her lifelong friend Truman Capote’s masterpiece, In Cold Blood.

At the center of Shields’s lively book is the story of Lee’s struggle to create her famous novel. But her life contains many other highlights as well: 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 Capote’s ally and research assistant to help report the story of the Clutter murders; the surrogate family she found in New York City.

Drawing on six hundred interviews and much new information, Mockingbird is the first book ever written about Harper Lee. Highly entertaining, filled with humor and heart, this is an evocative portrait of a writer, her dream, and the place and people whom she made immortal.

What people are saying

Review: Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee

User Review  - Ali Sessions - Goodreads

This book is an enjoyable read for To Kill A Mockingbird fanatics. I was fascinated by the insight into Nelle Harper Lee, but this would probably only be entertaining for serious fans.

Review: Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee

User Review  - Mikey B. - Goodreads

This is a straight-forward account of the life of Harper Lee - author of the famous novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”. The book starts off when both Harper Lee and Truman Capote investigate the murder of ...

Contents

• Introduction i: 1
• Ellen Spelled Backward: 31
• Without Finishing Touches: 60
• Rammer Jammer: 83
• Atticus Becomes To Kill a Mockingbird: 112
• See NLs Notes: 136
• Mockingbird Takes Off: 180
• q The Second Novel: 232
• Bibliography: 313
• Acknowledgments: 325

About the author

Charles J. Shields is the author of And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life, Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, the highly acclaimed, bestselling biography of Harper Lee, and I Am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers). He grew up in the Midwest and taught in a rural school in central Illinois for several years. He has been a reporter for public radio, a journalist, and the author of nonfiction books for young people. He and his wife live near Charlottesville, Virginia.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee
• Author: Charles J. Shields
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2007
• ISBN: 1429900911, 9781429900911
• Length: 352 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Literary; Biography & Autobiography / Women