A 50-Year Memory: A Classic is Born

July 11- The Great American Novel, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, was published. It won the Pulitzer Prize and was turned into a classic, Oscar-winning American film in 1962 starring Gregory Peck and the movie debut of Robert Duvall.

According to Wikipedia:

It was instantly successful and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old.

The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator's father, Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. One critic explained the novel's impact by writing, "In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism."

After 50 years it is still a great book and movie.