To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature.

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality.

“What is interesting, particularly in this moment, this book – and I think that this is why I think ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is so important even today – it explains to readers who don’t understand why black people are afraid of the criminal justice system, because we have not gotten, historically, justice in that system. And Harper Lee was the first person to tell that to the largest group of Americans – 30 million strong, who’ve been her readers – in the most polite and quiet way that many of them were willing to listen to.” Alice Randall, professor of African-American and diaspora studies at Vanderbilt University