Mockingbird, A Portrait of Harper Lee
Charles Shields wrote this biography without the cooperation of Harper Lee. He notes that she is an intensely private person. He felt it important to tell her story while people who know her are still alive.
He begins with her childhood in depression era Monroeville, Alabama. This is the inspiration for the fictional town of Maycomb in "To Kill a Mockingbird." The parallels between the actual place, events, and people and the fictional are very ...