There's quite a stir happening today in Monroeville, Alabama, the hometown of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Harper Lee. Walking tours, a marathon reading of
To Kill a Mockingbird, storytelling and the release of Lee's latest book,
Go Set a Watchman will all happen within the quaint streets of this southern Alabama town. (See schedule below.)
Stick around for on Wednesday, July 15, 2015, the Monroe
County Heritage Museum will host its annual program, Scenes and Stories of
Monroeville: A
To Kill a Mockingbird Workshop in the Old Courthouse
Museum at 31 N. Alabama Avenue from 9 a.m. to noon, discussing growing up with
Harper Lee and race relations in the 1930s. Admission is free to the public and
SARIC credit awarded to teachers. Seating is limited and pre-registration is
recommended; contact Wanda Green at the Monroe County Heritage Museum at
mchm@frontiernet.net or (251) 575-7433.
Where it all began
To glimpse
into the history of the award-winning
Mockingbird tale and its legendary author,
visit
Monroeville where you can enter the county courthouse and
expect to find Atticus Finch sitting for the defense or hear Tom Robinson’s
plea for justice. The 1903 courthouse in the center of town was the basis for
both Lee’s famous courthouse scene and the Hollywood set used in the 1962
Oscar-winning film.
Monroeville
is Lee’s hometown and much of her book loosely reflects her personal
experiences growing up as well as racial incidences that happened in the area.
Lee lived along South Alabama Avenue, next door to the Faulks, cousins of
writer Truman Capote, who visited often and considered Monroeville one of the
highlights of his youth. Lee and Capote played in her backyard tree house and
the child character of “Dill” in Mockingbird is said to have been based
on Capote.
The
courthouse today houses the Monroe County Heritage Museums, offering rotating
exhibits, a history of the area and comprehensive displays on both Lee and
Capote. Every spring a play version of
To
Kill a Mockingbird by Christopher Sergel is performed on the courthouse
lawn to an audience of about 250. Act I occurs outside in three sets, then
moves inside the courthouse for Act II, which is the trial of Tom Robinson. The
audience follows, watching the trial as if they are participants. For more information, visit
www.tokillamockingbird.com.
Other
literary reasons to visit Monroeville include the
Alabama Writers Symposium at
Alabama Southern Community College, held in the spring about the same time as
the play, and
Beehive Coffee & Books, a quaint independent bookstore off
the square that features local authors and specialty coffees in a restored
1930s building.
Visitors
can pick up a walking tour that explains Monroeville of the 1930s, when Lee and
Capote were children. Many of the historic sites are gone, including both
authors’ childhood homes, but there are still sites to take in, such as the
Monroe County Library, once the LaSalle Hotel where Gregory Park stayed gathering
information for his character of Atticus Finch.
For
information on Monroeville, visit
www.monroecountyal.com.
Did you know?
Monroe
County, Alabama, exists along the historic El Camino corridor that eventually
heads to Natchez, Miss., and on over to Natchitoches and Texas. The county was
one of the earliest settlements of Alabama pioneers after the Creek Wars.
Harper
Lee’s father, A.C. Lee, was a lawyer who practiced in Monroeville and a model
for her character of Atticus Finch.
Not only
did the courthouse inspire Lee for To
Kill a Mockingbird, but the courthouse clock appears in Capote’s A Christmas Memory and The Thanksgiving Visitor.
Mel’s Dairy
Dream now exists where Lee’s house once stood and Capote’s cousin’s home is
gone as well. However, pieces of the brick wall surrounding the Faulk home
remain, next to a historical marker.
The film
version was adapted by Horton Foote, of which he won an Oscar.
To Kill a Mockingbird was Lee’s only
novel and she has given little publicity since 1964.
