Today we take a look at To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, and never once out of print! Poem by Effie Smith.

On this day in 1960, the novel To Kill a Mockingbird was released. It was an instant bestseller and was published into ten different languages its second year in print. Since its first publication, To Kill a Mockingbird has won a Pulitzer Prize (1961), been translated into over 40 languages, and is the most widely read book among middle school and high school students. 

TKAM has been compared to Uncle Tom’s Cabin due to its timely release date, in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement. Some scholars claim it was an important book for drumming up sympathy for the African American cause, though it’s difficult to quantify its impact on the whole. 

TKAM is from the perspective of a young girl named Jean Louise Finch, who readers come to know as ‘Scout.’ The main event in the book revolved around the trial of a falsely accused black man, Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson is represented by Scout’s father, a lawyer, Atticus Finch. 

The book is largely based on the author’s own experiences in childhood. Her neighbor friend Dill is a version of Truman Capote who was indeed a neighbor and close friend of Lee’s when they were small. Truman Capote fondly remembered going to the local courthouse with Lee and watching trials play out during summers as kids. However, it’s unlikely the pair ever witnessed one of the trails that shook the Civil Rights Movement awake. 

It has been suggested that Tom Robinson, the falsely accused black man, is loosely based on Emmett Till, a black man who was murdered for engaging in a flirtatious chat with a white woman in public. Other instances of wrongly accused black men would have been well-known to Lee as a teen and 20-something, as would the prejudiced sentiments of the people in her hometown.

Some critics argue that TKAM didn’t go far enough in calling for change. Some of the main criticisms of the book now is that it treats racism with a detached perspective, the black characters are flat and two-dimensional, and the use of racial epithets is offensive. However, Civil Rights leader Andrew Young notes that the use of racial epithets is simply a true-to-life depiction of the time in which the story is set. Young has additionally said that the book "inspires hope in the midst of chaos and confusion" and is "an act of humanity" in how it shows that people can change their prejudiced perspectives.

Since its publication in 1960, To Kill A Mockingbird has never been out of print and its estimated that there are over 30 million copies in circulation. 

 

Effie Waller Smith

 

In a churchyard old and still,

Where the breeze-touched branches thrill

              To and fro,

Giant oak trees blend their shade

O'er a sunken grave-mound, made

              Long ago.

 

No stone, crumbling at its head,

Bears the mossed name of the dead

              Graven deep;

But a myriad blossoms' grace

Clothes with trembling light the place

              Of his sleep.

 

Was a young man in his strength

Laid beneath this low mound's length,

              Heeding naught?

Did a maiden's parents wail

As they saw her, pulseless, pale,

              Hither brought?

 

Was it else one full of days,

Who had traveled darksome ways,

              And was tired,

Who looked forth unto the end,

And saw Death come as a friend

              Long desired?

 

Who it was that rests below

Not earth's wisest now may know,

              Or can tell;

But these blossoms witness bear

They who laid the sleeper there

              Loved him well.

 

In the dust that closed him o'er

Planted they the garden store

              Deemed most sweet,

Till the fragrant gleam, outspread,

Swept in beauty from his head

              To his feet.

 

Still, in early springtime's glow,

Guelder-roses cast their snow

              O'er his rest;

Still sweet-williams breathe perfume

Where the peonies' crimson bloom

              Drapes his breast.

 

Passing stranger, pity not

Him who lies here, all forgot,

              'Neath this earth;

Some one loved him—more can fall

To no mortal. Love is all

              Life is worth.