Literary Landmarks: To Kill A Mockingbird in Alabama

To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel set in Macomb, Alabama, based on Monroeville, USA, home town of the author Harper Lee. The town was named after President Monroe. It is now known as Literary Capital of Alabama. Harper Lee died, aged 89, in February 2016. Landmarks in the town of Monroeville are:

• SIGN: The welcome visitors sign (billboard) showing covers of Harper Lee's two books and thanking her. Placed on the site of the home of her neighbours, family of Truman Capote. (The house burned down.)
• COURTHOUSE SQUARE STATUES: Courthouse Square statue Celebration of Reading of the girl on seat reading the book, statues of two boys standing behind. You can sit on the seat for a photo opportunity.
• COURTHOUSE BUILDING: The Courthouse building exterior and picnic area.
• MUSEUM: Monroe County Heritage Museum, interior to visit: court room, shop.
• MAP A walking tour map is supplied by the museum
• Mockingbird Inn
• First United Methodist Church and cemetery alongside with graves of Harper Lee, her sister Alice Lee who lived to the age of 103 and their parents A.C. Lee and Frances Finch Lee.
• http://www.monroecountymuseum.org/#!functions/cq4e Buy a copy of Kill A Mockingbird or Go Set A Watchman when visiting or online. DVD of the movie.
• PLAY Annual performance of a play based on the story of To Kill A Mockingbird is performed outside and inside the Courthouse building in May. Tickets on sale from late February.

Quick Guide to Facts

• Nelle Harper Lee born 28 April 1926.
• Harper Lee's childhood friend and neighbour was Truman (whose mother's second husband had surname Capote).
• Harper Lee studied law and wrote articles and short stories.
• Truman went to New York and wrote Breakfast At Tiffany's.
• Harper Lee travelled with Truman to interview people whose story was the basis for Truman's book In Cold Blood. 
• Harper Lee worked for BOAC and was introduced to a literary agent by Truman.
• Two of Truman's friends subsidised her for a year so she could give up work and write a book.
• Literary agent who had written the biography of a campaigner helped Harper Lee turn 'a series of anecdotes' into a novel.
• Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird was published in 1960.
• 1961 Pulitzer prize awarded to To Kill A Mockingbird.
• Movie in 1962 starred Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch.
• To Kill A Mockingbird was on the school syllabus in USA.
• Lee was awarded Presidential Medal Of Freedom by President George W Bush Nov 5 2007.
• Book To Kill A Mockingbird was semi-autobiographical.
• Hero of book, Atticus Finch, (lawyer father of 6 year old narrator Scout Finch), was based on the author's father.
• Harper Lee's friend Truman Capote was the inspiration for character Dill.
• 1970s Harper Lee researched a murder case for use in a book she never published. She met the man who shot a suspected serial killer (several members of his family died including a close relative of the man who shot him). She interviewed the lawyer who defended the suspected serial killer and afterwards the man who shot him.
• 2003 Museum was sued by Harper Lee's lawyers.
• Harper Lee's second book Go Set A Watchman was published July 2015.
• Harper Lee was in Meadows nursing home.
• Harper Lee died aged 89 on Friday 19 February 2016.
• Funeral on Saturday 20 February 2016 at First United Methodist Church.
• Harper Lee is buried in the cemetery beside First United Methodist Church where her family are buried.

Books
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee published by HarperCollins.
Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee.
Mockingbird By Harper Lee by Charles Shields, a biography.
The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee by Marja Mills.

See Wikipedia for an article on Harper Lee

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harper_Lee

Also see articles in

BBC website
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-35623948

CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/19/entertainment/harper-lee-obit-feat/

Daily Mail online
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3456366/The-Latest-Harper-Lee-laid-rest-private-funeral.html

The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/09/alabama-harper-lee-true-crime-book
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/20/harper-lee-to-kill-a-mockingbird-monroeville-alabama

Visits
http://alabama.travel/road-trips/monroeville-the-to-kill-a-mockingbird-experience
http://www.ruralswalabama.org/attraction/atticus-finch-monument/
http://www.monroecountymuseum.org/#!functions/cq4e

Angela Lansbury, B A Hons, CL, ATG, travel writer, author, researcher, speaker.