TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by HARPER LEE

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New softcover book, 323 pages. Published by HarperPerennial Modern Classics in 2002

"Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel--a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with rich humor and unswerving honesty the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man's struggle for justice--but the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

One of the best-loved classics of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has earned many distinctions since its original publication in 1960. It has won the Pulitzer Prize, been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and been made into an enormously popular movie. Recently, librarians across the US gave the book the highest of honors by voting it the best novel of the century (Library Journal).

One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has earned many distinctions since its original publication in 1960. In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize, it has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and been made into an enormously popular movie.

About the Author

Harper Lee was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama, where she attended Huntingdon College and studied law at the University of Alabama. For some years she spent most of her time in New York City, where, until she began writing, she was employed in the reservations department of an international airline. "Aside from writing," says Miss Lee, "my chief interests in life are collecting memoirs of nineteenth-century clergymen, golf, crime and music."

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee