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Robert Mulligan, film director, died Saturday at the age of 83 at his home in Lyme, Connecticut. Among other projects, he directed the film treatment of a book which has been voted “The Novel of the 20th Century” – ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Mulligan’s contribution to that film cannot be underestimated – directing amazing performances from Gregory Peck, Robert Duvall, William Windham, James Anderson and others. He also brought this almost timeless story to millions of people who had not read the book, published in 1960.
Harper Lee wrote the book in the late 50s, when she worked as a reservation clerk for BOAC in New York City. She was able to quit her job while writing, through the support of some friends and her agent . Published in 1960, it was an instant best seller and has remained in print ever since. The movie is still extremely popular, as is the stage treatment. Why? What was Harper Lee(well known for shunning interviews) telling us?
TKAM is Lee’s ‘love poem’ to her father, there is no doubt of that – but it is also the same for a certain period of her life, her home town and her memories. It is also, I think, her effort to answer the questions that she must certainly have been asked in 1950s New York. Newspaper headlines of the period included:
1954: Brown vs. Board of Education
1955: Emmett Till’s murder
1955: Rosa Parks arrest for refusing to give up her seat on the bus, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott
1957: Gov. Orval Faubus stands in the schoolhouse door in Arkansas
One of her aims, IMHO was an answer to people who wanted to know, “Are you all like that in the South?” I think she wanted people to know that the answer to that question was..and is…’No.”
I think we have to always ask ourselves our own national version of that question, whether it is about the US’s foreign interventions, or how we treat people here at home. Atticus Finch is the man we all remember standing up for what is right in a world and a time when it meant threats to himself and members of his family to do so. Perhaps we should send a copy of this book to every member of Congress with instructions for them to read it along with their Constitutions.
22 Comments
Digg is open, folks.
Thank you, Toby. DUGG and commented there.
Much appreciated.
Thanks very much Toby.
Dugg.
IMHO, there’s is tremendous ignorance about the successful efforts of white supremacists to destroy any attempts, of people who had ancestors who were slaves, to make a middle class.
Colfax Massacre 1872
Tulsa Riot 1921
Medgar Evers
Hey, Boo – I wondered if you would visit. As access to education recedes farther and farther into the distance, fewer and fewer people at the lower end(of any race) will find attaining middle class income and status more and more difficult. There IS a reason why the US economy exploded in the 1950s-1970s, which was the effect of having a huge influx of vets into the college ranks and then out into the economy. Before WWII, college (except in places like NYC which had City College, which was extremely cheap) was a rich man’s game. Period. And guess what…it’s returning there relatively quickly.
toby-
what a wonderful novel. oh, so many things in it.
sorry for the long comment, but this is one close to home. i’ll only mention a few here.
i have always said everyone should have to read ‘to kill a mockingbird’. and ‘tale of two cities’ and ‘atlas shrugged’. (i’ve been saving that last one for a while now. yes, i can hear the shrieking about ‘atlas shrugged’, but i read it on my own, didn’t link it to her philosophies or other writings-read those later, didn’t like them, and came away with a completely different message than the rest of you. pups, read it again and think bush administration in the place of ‘the powers that be’ in that novel, then talk to me.)
my sister teaches 9th grade english, the general and lower level classes. her choice. she chose that level of 9th grade because she thinks that’s the last chance to reach them. she can have any teaching job she wants. she loves it. she’s nuts. gotta be to teach 9th graders.
when they receive their very own copy of the book (i still have mine), it has a bookmark in it.
when they have completed the reading and discussion and testing of ‘to kill a mockingbird’ she passes out blank white pre-cut bookmark paper to them. part of their grade is to draw a picture of their favorite part of the book on it. in color.
a really rough decision came for my sister, she had ankle surgery and didn’t have a ‘real’ english sub to teach ‘to kill a mockingbird’.. no way for her to be back at school for weeks. there was no other window in the schedule for the book. do or die. at her home we debated about changing the lesson plan. pros and cons of the illiterate subs-teachers already at the school who had to fill in. and didn’t care. what alternative lesson plans and books that could be substituted. no. we agreed everyone should read it. no matter what.
she then handed me my own new copy of ‘to kill a mockingbird’ and then handed me the stack of bookmarks from the last class to look through. lots of ham suits and hanging trees and dead mockingbirds. and atticus in court. an overwhelming number of atticus bookmarks.
if you haven’t read ‘to kill a mockingbird’, if toby’s post isn’t enough to make you go get a copy, let someone who read it tell you-it hits you in the most private of places. the part of you that insists, i will do something about that when i can. i will most certainly will.
and there are 9th graders out there, from gang bangers to ones on the edge of opportunity right below the college prep crowd who now have the mores of this book embedded in their private place (i could have used the word psyche but i hate that word). ones without the mores of religion or a stable home who will think–what would atticus do. what did scout see, what did she do.
that is why my sister insists that it be taught to every one of her students. even if she can’t be there to teach it to them.
now, that is something.
this book will only live on if people keep reading it. so, don’t be embarrassed in giving a copy to someone. make sure to stick in a bookmark for it. handmade. just like they did it in the 50’s.
Sigh – you know, I have to admit that I came to reading TKAM because(wait for it..wait for it), I had a crush on Gregory Peck and saw the movie. There is so much in that movie – but also so much in the book that did not GET into the movie. I remember talking to my father about Mrs. Dubose and his taking a long time to explain to me about drugs during the Civil War and how old she must have been when they gave it to her, turning her into an addict..and how important it must have been to her to have beaten the addiction, even that late in life. That book is so full of the stuff that we should all be teaching our kids – love, duty, loyalty, courage, graciousness to others, the knowledge of what is right and correct and fair – and how people can be weak and small and petty and can go out of their way to hurt one another just so they can feel somehow better or bigger. Harper Lee did some writing after TKAM was published – but no novels — in my mind, it was right and fitting, because if she had only one great, towering book in her – TKAM is certainly IT. If we could get every Congress Critter to read that book – really and truly read it – and tell them, “Do THIS – BE THIS – Emulate THIS – stand up, do right, protect the Constitution.” It’s NOT just a damn story. People really CAN BE THIS WAY, even if they have to work at it and make those decisions to Be and Do THOSE THINGS.
Hey Toby, just had an idea: Create an annual FDL Atticus Finch Award.
My 2008 vote goes to Glenn Greenwald!!
hmm, let’s see now..what would the award look like, though? Great idea..but what would the award be? And certainly, we’d have to ask Miss Lee’s permission for this…
hmmmm. have to think about those things…
Personally, I’d go with a small statuette based on the scene where Atticus is leaning back in his chair in front of the jail, with his gun in his lap, there to protect Tom Robinson.
Toby, I get your point here, but ultimately it was The Law with which Atticus defended Tom, and it was Justice under the law that Atticus was willing to defend with his very life there on the steps.
I can’t seem to get that picture out of my mind of our own Jim White, standing, arm extended high, holding his pocket Constitution all during Pelosi’s speech at the Netroots Convention in Austin.
Maybe a scroll . . . it is with the written and spoken word that we have the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and those are the means with which ignorance and bigotry must be overcome.
A joyful Christmas to all here at FDL. May you each receive that Peace which does indeed pass all understanding.
Oh, yes – perhaps one of the first winners of the award should be JimWhite – not saying that he (or anyone else for that matter)had anything to fear from standing up to Nancy Pelosi – but a definite and defiant symbol of love for the Constitution and the Rule of Law. Yep –
Toby, have you seen Amy Goodman’s interview with Rep. Jerrold Nadler yesterday on http://www.democracynow.org
He’s a good guy, too. Gonna introduce legislation in Jan. to rein in the VP’s conduct. He voted against FISA and Iraq war. The video is really worth watching. (do an article on that?)
Also, Amy had the U of Idaho student, Tim DeChristopher, on the day before. He put the brakes on the auction of the public lands that Bush sneaked in a short time ago. He had waited for someone to stand up against the rape and finally realized that “that Someone had to be me”. How about an article on that, Toby? (I haven’t the skills to do it justice.)
(scratch, scratch..sound of Toby writing this idea on the ever growing list…) Great idea -
Thanks, Toby. I’ll look forward to both articles. I sold Nadler short. He has some good legislation that he’s going to introduce in the House when the 111th comes in. i.e. re-install the independent prosecutor, free of control by exec admin. And, have the first one investigate all unlawful acts of this Bush/Cheney crew. (a job for life!!!)
did anyone nominate Russ Feingold for his stand on FISA?
and toby-
you are one fine individual.
Hi Toby,
Just can’t seem to rec. and DIGG ya enough.
When I travel to my mountaintop retreat (no toobz), I can’t wait to get home to see your latest at Oxdown.
As a matter of fact I’m a fan of all of the commenters above too. Hey this is too much commenting for this lurker.
I’m outta here. Regards to the DH and thanks for all you do. (poof)
Nice job, fine remembrance, excellent reporting/correlation.
Having “Pastor” Rick Warren give the inaugural invocation is the 2009 equivalent of LBJ having a segregationist in 1965. Why doesn’t Obama understand that? Copy of TKAM to Obama, stat.
Oh Toby, this is one of my favorite books. I read it in HS and didn’t think much of it and then reread it in my book club and thank goodness I had grown an appreciation for dry humor because there’s loads of it in an otherwise heavy theme.
I too have an amazing crush on Mr. Peck/Atticus Finch. No wonder his performance was voted #1 for favorite movie character by AFI. But hey! You left out Brock Peters powerful and dignified Tom Robinson. The opening credits were also very artfully done.
Also, I learned somewhere that part of the plot was inspired by the Scottsboro Boys trial as well, in which a white girl accused the boys who were hopping trains of having their way with her.
If you haven’t seen or read TKAM, do so now!