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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J 921 LEE | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Read Kerry Madden's posts on the Penguin Blog.
Nelle Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 and became an instant bestseller. Two years later it was an Academy Award- winning film. Today, it remains standard--and beloved--reading in English classes. But Lee never wanted "the book" to define who she was, which explains her aversion to any kind of publicity. Kerry Madden conducted extensive research for this Up Close biography, which reveals Lee to be a down-to-earth Southern woman who prefers to live simply, like her neighbors do, despite the fact that she is a treasured literary legend. Madden's in-depth biography is now more relevant than ever: 2015's historic release of Go Set a Watchman --written by Lee before To Kill a Mockingbird and lost for decades--has thrust Lee and her work back into the spotlight.
A Booklist Top Ten Biography of 2009
A Kirkus Best Book of 2009
Author Notes
Kerry Madden (www.kerrymadden.com) is the author of the Appalachian Maggie Valley Trilogy: Gentle's Holler , Louisiana's Song , and Jessie's Mountain (all Viking). Her other books include Offsides , a 1997 New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age selection, Writing Smarts , which helps kids craft their own stories and poetry, and Nothing Fancy About Kathryn & Charlie , about a Selma, Alabama friendship between a storyteller and a folk artist. Kerry is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Alabama Birmingham and also teaches at Antioch University in Los Angeles and at the Sewanee Young Writers Conference in Tennessee. The mother of three grown children, she divides her time between Birmingham and Los Angeles.
Reviews (4)
Horn Book Review
(Middle School, High School) In a straightforward, easy-to-read biography, Madden limns familiar incidents from the life of Nelle Harper Lee. She covers Lee's childhood in Monroeville, Alabama, particularly the influences of her father (A.C.), older sister (Alice), and childhood friend (Truman Capote). Situations in her childhood are related to her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Nelle's college years; her persistent rewriting of Mockingbird; and her trip with Capote to help him research his own magnum opus, In Cold Blood, receive separate chapters. There's also a slightly gossipy chapter on the filming of Mockingbird, although the intrigues might appear mild to today's celebrity-sophisticated readers. As has been her preference for forty years, Lee refused to be interviewed, stating that biographies should not be written about the living and underscoring her famous quotation, "It's better to be silent than to be a fool." Still, Madden's done her homework, providing clear documentation from an impressive group of secondary sources, including many from the past two years. Index unseen. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* From the Up Close series, this informative biography spotlights writer Harper Lee, who grew up in Monroeville, Alabama, and studied law in college before deciding to become a writer. After working and writing in New York City for many years, she found a publisher for her first novel. Her life was transformed by the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), which quickly became a best-seller, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and the basis for an unusually successful movie adaptation. Though Lee appreciated the critical acclaim, she found the unrelenting demands for interviews, public appearances, and personal contact increasingly unwelcome and withdrew. Given the writer's refusal to grant access to any biographer and her closest friends' and relatives' reluctance to discuss her, Madden has done a fine job of researching the novelist's life and presenting it with respect for her point of view. The sensitive treatment of race relations during Lee's youth and the section on three trials that may have inspired parts of her novel will interest students researching To Kill a Mockingbird. A lengthy acknowledgments section, source notes for the many quotes, and an extensive bibliography conclude this unusually readable biography of an elusive figure in American letters.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2009 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7-10-Madden pieces together her subject's life with depth and insight, relying on research trips to Alabama to interview Lee's colleagues and neighbors and to visit places that figure prominently in the writer's story. Through this research, the author paints a nuanced picture of Lee's childhood in Monroeville, AL, and how it informed the writing of To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee's father is said to be the basis for the character of Atticus, Lee's childhood friend Truman Capote was the inspiration for Dill, and there was even a neighbor who resembled Boo Radley. The racial climate in the South and Lee's own observations of segregation and inequality played prominently in the novel and in the Academy Award-winning movie. With the author's new interviews and research, this biography is a valuable resource. There are a few black-and-white photographs and endnotes.-Kristen Oravec, Flint Hill Middle School, Oakton, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Not believing in biographies of living writers, Harper Lee declined to be interviewed for one, but Madden draws on extensive researchincluding trips to Monroeville, Ala., and interviews with classmates, colleagues and town residentsto explore how Lee's life and times inspired her masterpiece. To Kill a Mockingbird has sold 30 million copies in 40 languages and continues to sell 10,000 copies per year, and Lee is "one of the authors most read by American students." A narrative both well paced and richly detailedeven reproducing two of Lee's stories for her college literary magazine and excerpting a recent letter to O magazine, not included in Charles Shields's excellent I Am Scout (2008)this biography will appeal to fans of the novel and to newcomers. Readers will find a fascinating portrait of an independent young woman stubbornly going her own way to become the one thing she wanted to be: a writer. Extensive source notes and an excellent bibliography round out this superb biography, one of the best in the Up Close series. (foreword, index) (Biography. 12 up) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
