The Mockingbird Next Door : Life with Harper Lee

Resource Information

The work The Mockingbird Next Door : Life with Harper Lee represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in East Baton Rouge Parish Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The Mockingbird Next Door : Life with Harper Lee

Title remainder

Life with Harper Lee

Statement of responsibility

Marja Mills

Creator

• trueMills, Marja

Subject

• trueAuthors, American -- 20th century -- Biography
• trueElectronic books
• Lee, Harper
• trueAlabama -- Biography
• Mills, Marja

Genre

• Electronic books
• trueBiography

Language

eng

Summary

• Describes the story of a journalist who befriended the notoriously quiet and private author of To Kill a Mockingbird, eventually moving in next door to the writer and her sister and becoming part of their life in Alabama
• "One journalist's memoir of her personal friendship with Harper Lee and her sister, drawing on the extraordinary access they gave her to share the story of their lives. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one of the best loved novels of the twentieth century. But for the last fifty years, the novel's celebrated author, Harper Lee, has said almost nothing on the record. Journalists have trekked to her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, where Harper Lee, known by her friends as Nelle, has lived with her sister, Alice, for decades, trying and failing to get an interview with the author. But in 2001, the Lee sisters opened their door for Chicago Tribune reporter Marja Mills. It was the beginning of a long conversation-and a friendship that has continued ever since. In 2004, with the Lees' encouragement, Mills moved into the house next door to the sisters. She spent the next eighteen months there, talking and sharing stories over meals and daily drives in the countryside. Along with members of the Lees' tight inner circle, the sisters and Mills would go fishing, feed the ducks, go to the Laundromat, watch the Crimson Tide, drink coffee at McDonald's, and explore all over lower Alabama. Nelle shared her love of history, literature, and the quirky Southern way of life with Mills, as well as her keen sense of how journalism should be practiced. As the sisters decided to let Mills tell their story, Nelle helped make sure she was getting the story-and the South-right. Alice, the keeper of the Lee family history, shared the stories of their family. The Mockingbird Next Door is the story of Mills's friendship with the Lee sisters. It is a testament to the great intelligence, sharp wit, and tremendous storytelling power of these two women, especially that of Nelle. Mills was given a rare opportunity to know Nelle Harper Lee, to be part of the Lees' life in Alabama, and to hear them reflect on their upbringing, their corner of the Deep South, how To Kill a Mockingbird affected their lives, and why Nelle Harper Lee chose to never write another novel"--

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Biography type

contains biographical information

Cataloging source

TEFOD

Dewey number

813/.54

Index

no index present

LC call number

PS3562.E353

LC item number

Z75 2014eb

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

dictionaries