Mr. Smith-English I

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Harper Lee (b. 1926)

If Nelle Harper Lee ever wanted proof that fame has its drawbacks, she didn't have to look farther than her

childhood neighbor, Truman Capote. After her enormously successful first novel, she has lived a life as private

as Capote's was public.

Nelle-her first name is her grandmother's spelled backward-was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville,

Alabama. Her mother, Frances Cunningham Finch Lee, was a homemaker. Her father, Amasa Coleman Lee,

practiced law. Before A.C. Lee became a title lawyer, he once defended two black men accused of murdering a

white storekeeper. Both clients, a father and son, were hanged.

As a child, Harper Lee was an unruly tomboy. She fought on the playground. She talked back to teachers. She

was bored with school and resisted any sort of conformity. The character of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird

would have liked her. In high school Lee was fortunate to have a gifted English teacher, Gladys Watson

Burkett, who introduced her to challenging literature and the rigors of writing well. Lee loved nineteenth-

century British authors best, and once said that her ambition was to become "the Jane Austen of south

Alabama."

Unable to fit in with the sorority she joined at the University of Alabama, she found a second home on the

campus newspaper. Eventually she became editor-in-chief of the Rammer Jammer, a quarterly humor magazine

on campus. She entered the law school, but she "loathed" it. Despite her father's hopes that she would become a

local attorney like her sister Alice, Lee went to New York to pursue her writing.

She spent eight years working odd jobs before she finally showed a manuscript to Tay Hohoff, an editor at J.B.

Lippincott. At this point, it still resembled a string of stories more than the novel that Lee had intended. Under

Hohoff's guidance, two and a half years of rewriting followed. When the novel was finally ready for

publication, the author opted for the name "Harper Lee" on the cover, because she didn't want to be

misidentified as "Nellie."

To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 to highly favorable reviews and quickly climbed the bestseller

lists, where it remained for eighty-eight weeks. In 1961, the novel won the Pulitzer Prize.

Though fans of the book waited for a second novel, it never came. Lee later researched a book, similar to

Capote's In Cold Blood (1966), about a part-time minister in Alexander City, Alabama, accused of killing five

people for their insurance money and later himself murdered by a victim's relative. However, she dropped the

project in the 1990s.

In the meantime, To Kill a Mockingbird has sold more than thirty million copies in eighteen languages. In 2011,

President Obama awarded her the National Medal of Arts. According to biographer Charles J. Shields, Lee was

unprepared for the amount of personal attention associated with writing a bestseller. Ever since, she has led a

quiet and guardedly private life. As Sheriff Tate says of Boo Radley, "draggin' him with his shy ways into the

limelight-to me, that's a sin." So it would be with Harper Lee. From her, To Kill a Mockingbird is gift enough.

The Friendship of Harper Lee and Truman Capote

Nelle Harper Lee and Truman Capote became friends in the early 1930s as kindergarteners in Monroeville,

Alabama. They lived next door to each other: Capote with aunts and uncles, Lee with her parents and three

siblings. From the start they loved reading and recognized in each other "an apartness," as Capote later

expressed it. When Lee's father gave them an old Underwood typewriter, they began writing original stories.

Although Capote moved to New York City in the third grade to join his mother and stepfather, he returned to

Monroeville most summers, eventually providing the inspiration for Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird.

In 1948 Capote published his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms. Around that time, Lee quit law school and

joined Capote in New York to work at becoming a writer, too. Years of menial jobs followed until To Kill a

Mockingbird was ready for publication. Capote read the manuscript and made editorial suggestions. She, in her

turn, accompanied him to Kansas to help research In Cold Blood.

After To Kill a Mockingbird was published, Capote resented Lee's success. He could have tried harder to dispel

baseless rumors that the novel was as much his work as hers. Their friendship continued during the 1960s and

'70s, but Capote's drug and alcohol abuse strained the relationship. Later he would stop publishing and sink into

self-parody, sponging off high society and making endless rounds of the talk-show circuit. When Capote died in

1984, Lee confided to friends that she hadn't heard from him in years.

How the Novel Came to Be Written

Any claims for To Kill a Mockingbird as a book that changed history could not have seemed more far-fetched

one winter night in 1958, as Nelle Harper Lee huddled in her outer-borough New York apartment trying to

finesse her unruly, episodic manuscript into some semblance of a cohesive novel. All but drowning in multiple

drafts of the same material, Lee suddenly threw open a window and scattered five years of work onto the dirty

snow below.

Did Lee really intend to destroy To Kill a Mockingbird? We'll never know. Fortunately, in the next moment, she

called her editor. J.B. Lippincott's formidable Tay Hohoff promptly sent her outside to gather all the pages

back-thus rescuing To Kill a Mockingbird from the slush.

The novel had its origins in Lee's hometown of Monroeville, Alabama-the small, Southern town that the

fictional Maycomb is based upon. Her father's unsuccessful defense of a black man and his son accused of

murder, in addition to the Scottsboro Boys trials and another notorious interracial rape case, helped to shape

Lee's budding social conscience and sense of a dramatic story.

Along with his legal practice, Lee's father published and edited the town newspaper. His regard for the written

word impacted Lee's sensibility as surely as his respect for the law. Lee would name her idealized vision of her

father after Titus Pomponius Atticus, a friend of the Roman orator Cicero renowned as, according to Lee, "a

wise, learned and humane man." For a long time, Lee called her work in progress Atticus. This arguably marked

an improvement over her first title, Go Set a Watchman, but once she fastened on To Kill a Mockingbird she did

not look back.

Lippincott finally published the book on July 11, 1960, by which time an unprecedented four national mail-

order book clubs had already selected it for their readers. The first line of the Washington Post's review echoed

many similar notices that praised the novel for its moral impact: "A hundred pounds of sermons on tolerance, or

an equal measure of invective deploring the lack of it, will weigh far less in the scale of enlightenment than a

mere 18 ounces of new fiction bearing the title To Kill a Mockingbird."

Eighty weeks later, the novel still perched on the hardcover bestseller list. During that time, it had won the

Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the hearts of American readers. One can't help wondering how literary history

might have been different had Harper Lee thrown her manuscript out the window on a slightly windier night.

"Writing is a process of self-discipline you must learn before you can call yourself a writer. There are people

who write, but I think they're quite different from people who must write."

—Harper Lee

from a 1964 interview

Chapter 1

1. Jem broke his arm badly at the elbow when he was nearly how old, according to the narrator in Chapter 1?

2. How many years older is Jem than his sister Scout?

3. In Chapter 1, the narrator says, "Being Southerners, it was a source of shame to some members of

the family that we had no recorded ancestors on either side of" what battle?

4. Simon Finch is described in Chapter 1 as a fur-trapping apothecary from what location?

5. What is the name of the homestead that Simon Finch established for himself in Alabama?

6. According to the narrator in Chapter 1, where did Atticus Finch go to study law?

7. Where does Dill live during the school year?

Chapter 2

8. What grade in school is Scout starting in Chapter 2?

9. What grade is Jem starting school in Chapter 2?

10. What is the name of Scout's schoolteacher in Chapter 2?

11. What county in Alabama does Scout's schoolteacher say she's from in Chapter 2?

12. On what date did Alabama secede from the Union during the Civil War era?

13. How much money does Scout's teacher offer to loan to the little boy who has no lunch with him in Chapter 2?

14. What is the name of the little boy that has no lunch with him at school in Chapter 2?

Chapter 3

15. What does Walter Cunningham pour all over his food that causes Scout to exclaim in Chapter 3?

16. Who invites Walter Cunningham to come to the Finch home for dinner in Chapter 3?

17. How does Scout say Calpurnia's grammar changes whenever she is furious in Chapter 3?

18. Where does Calpurnia make Scout eat the rest of her dinner after she's insulted Walter in Chapter 3?

19. Where does Scout threaten to go and drown herself in Chapter 3?

20. Who is the little boy that Scout's teacher sees a "cootie" crawling on in Chapter 3?

21. What does Atticus say the Ewell family patriarch spends his relief checks on in Chapter 3?

Chapter 4

22. At what time does Scout get out of school each day in Chapter 4?

23. What does Scout find in the knothole of the oak tree at the Radley Place in the beginning of Chapter 4?

24. What items are contained in the jewelry box that Scout and Jem find in the knothole in Chapter 4?

25. Who lives at the far end of Scout's street next door to the post office in Chapter 4?

26. Who is described in Chapter 4 as "the meanest old woman who ever lived"?

27. Scout says in Chapter 4 that the train stop called Maycomb Junction is actually in what county?

28. Who picks up Dill at the train station in Maycomb's one taxi in Chapter 4?

Chapter 5

29. What does Miss Maudie detest growing in her yard?

30. What is Dill's real name?

31. What does Miss Maudie say Boo Radley's name is in Chapter 5?

32. What is the name of Atticus Finch's brother?

33. What was the name of Miss Maudie's father?

34. What household pets does Jem suggest Boo Radley eats in Chapter 5?

35. What does Jem use to try to deliver a message to Boo Radley in Chapter 5?

Chapter 6

36. Scout says in Chapter 6 that Mr. Avery boards a room across the street from whose house?

37. What does Jem tell Scout to not get tangled up with in the garden as the children steal into the Radley yard in

Chapter 6?

38. What does Jem get his pants caught on as the children run from the Radley yard in Chapter 6?

39. What is the first name of the elder Mr. Radley?

40. Scout says in Chapter 6 that "Matches were dangerous, but" what "were fatal"?

41. Dill tells Atticus that he won Jem's pants playing what game in Chapter 6?

42. At what time does Jem sneak out of the house to go get his pants in Chapter 6?

Chapter 7

43. What grade is Scout beginning in school in Chapter 7?

44. What time does Scout get out of school each day in Chapter 7?

45. What is the first object that Jem and Scout see in the knothole of the oak tree in Chapter 7?

46. Jem tells Scout in Chapter 7 that it wasn't until he reached what grade that he learned anything of value in

school?

47. The little figurines of a boy and girl that Scout and Jem find in the tree in Chapter 7 are carved from what

material?

48. The medal that Scout and Jem find in the knothole of the oak tree in Chapter 7 is one that was awarded for

what achievement?

Chapter 8

49. In the beginning of Chapter 8, Scout says that Maycomb County is experiencing the coldest winter since what

year?

50. Scout claims in Chapter 8 that "Mr. Avery said it was written on the Rosetta Stone that when children

disobeyed their parents, smoked cigarettes and made war on each other," what would happen?

51. What does Scout observe for the first time that makes her scream for Atticus saying that the world is ending

in Chapter 8?

52. Who is the telephone operator that calls Atticus to tell him that school has been canceled in Chapter 8?

53. At what time in the night does Atticus awaken Scout because of the fire on the block in Chapter 8?

54. Whose house has caught fire in Chapter 8?

Chapter 9

55. Who does Scout almost come to blows with on the playground because he insults Atticus in the beginning of

Chapter 9?

56. Atticus tells Scout not to use the "n" word because it is what, in Chapter 9?

57. What ailment does Scout try to get from Miss Rachel's cook's son by rubbing her head against his head in

Chapter 9?

58. Who does Atticus say was kind enough to grant a postponement on the trial in Chapter 9?

59. Who is described in Chapter 9 as "Maycomb County’s sole surviving Confederate veteran"?

60. Of whom does Scout say in Chapter 9, "I decided that she had been swapped at birth, that my grandparents

had perhaps received a Crawford instead of a Finch"?

Chapter 10

61. How old does Scout say Atticus is in Chapter 10?

62. Who does Scout say taught her and Jem to shoot when they received air-rifles in Chapter 10?

63. When Jem and Scout were given air-rifles, Atticus told Jem that it was a sin to kill a mockingbird, but that he

could shoot all of what kind of bird that he wanted?

64. Why does Miss Maudie tell Scout it is a sin to kill a mockingbird?

65. What game does Miss Maudie say Atticus is the best at in town in Chapter 10?

66. What kind of sport are the Methodists and the Baptists playing as a benefit in Chapter 10?

Chapter 11

67. What does Jem intend to buy for himself with his birthday money in the beginning of Chapter 11?

68. The twirling baton that Scout longs for in Chapter 11 is sold at what store in town?

69. How much does the twirling baton cost that Scout longs for in Chapter 11?

70. What "dim organization on the north side of the square" does Mrs. Dubose tell Scout she'll grow up to work at

in Chapter 11?

71. What does Jem do after Mrs. Dubose says derogatory things about Atticus and enrages him in Chapter 11?

72. What is the name of the black man that Atticus Finch is assigned to defend in the novel?

Chapter 12

73. How old is Jem in the beginning of Chapter 12?

74. What does Scout ask Atticus if Jem might have when Jem's appetite grows considerably in Chapter 12?

75. What profession does Dill say his new father has in his letter in Chapter 12?

76. For how long does Atticus leave home because the legislature is called into emergency session in Chapter 12?

77. What is the name of Calpurnia's church that she takes Scout and Jem to in Chapter 12?

78. What is the name of the Maycomb trash collector that Jem and Scout see at church in Chapter 12?

Chapter 13

79. On what day of the week does Aunt Alexandra arrive at the Finch household in Chapter 13?

80. Where is Atticus returning from in the beginning of Chapter 13?

81. How far is Maycomb from Finch's Landing?

82. What word is used in the novel to refer to homemade liquor?

83. Aunt Alexandra presents a book to Jem and Scout that was written by what cousin of theirs in Chapter 13?

84. Atticus asks Jem and Scout as he leaves their room in Chapter 13, "Do you think I'll end up costing the family"

how much money?

Chapter 14

85. What does Scout think is under her bed when she goes to get Jem in Chapter 14?

86. How much money does Dill say he took from his mother's purse in order to come to Maycomb in Chapter 14?

87. How many miles away from home has Dill traveled to come to Maycomb in Chapter 14?

88. Who does Jem go to tell that Dill has arrived at the Finch household in Chapter 14?

89. What word does Atticus define for Scout in Chapter 14 as "carnal knowledge of a female by force and without

consent"?

90. What is Dill's response when Scout asks him in Chapter 14, “Why do you reckon Boo Radley’s never run off?”

91. What is the name of the Sheriff of Maycomb County?

Chapter 15

92. Who does Atticus say shamed the Ku Klux Klan away from Maycomb when they paraded around his house once in

Chapter 15?

93. Who is the sole owner, editor and printer of The Maycomb Tribune?

94. What kind of car does Atticus Finch own and keep in the garage?

95. Who does Scout tell Mr. Cunningham to say hello to for her in Chapter 15?

96. Who speaks from the shadows and is revealed to be holding a double-barrel shotgun with the intention of

protecting Atticus in Chapter 15?

Chapter 16

97. What does Jem eat for breakfast in the beginning of Chapter 16?

98. Scouts says in Chapter 16, "Atticus said naming people after Confederate generals made" what?

99. What towns-person is described by Jem in Chapter 16 as voting "the straight Prohibition ticket"?

100. What lady from Maycomb is described in Chapter 16 as one who dips snuff in private?

101. What kind of cola does Scout describe the black attendees of the trial drinking in Chapter 16?

102. Of whom does Jem say in Chapter 16, "Lives by himself way down near the county line. He’s got a colored

woman and all sorts of mixed chillun"?

Chapter 17

103. Where is Mr. Gilmer said to be from in Chapter 17?

104. Who does the Sheriff say called him to the Ewell residence on the night of the alleged crime in Chapter 17?

105. What date was the Sheriff contacted to go to the Ewell residence, according to his testimony in Chapter 17?

106. Who is Dill sitting next to in the courtroom in Chapter 17?

107. What is the name of the young woman who claims to have been raped by Tom Robinson in the trial?

108. What is noted by Atticus when he has Bob Ewell write his name before the court in Chapter 17?

Chapter 18

109. What is Mayella Ewell's middle name?

110. How old does Mayella Ewell says she is when she takes the stand in Chapter 18?

111. How much money does Mayella say she offered to Tom Robinson to bust up a chiffarobe for her in Chapter 18?

112. How many siblings does Mayella Ewell have?

113. How did Tom Robinson injure his left arm, according to Reverend Sykes in Chapter 18?

114. How many witnesses does Atticus say he has for the court in the end of Chapter 18?

115. Who is the judge that oversees the trial of Tom Robinson?

Chapter 19

116. How old is Tom Robinson when he takes the stand in Chapter 19?

117. How many children does Tom Robinson say he has in Chapter 19?

118. According to Tom Robinson's testimony, he spent thirty days in jail once before when he was convicted of

what crime?

119. For whom does Tom Robinson say he worked at the time of the crime in Chapter 19?

120. What reason does Tom Robinson give for why he helped out Mayella Ewell periodically in Chapter 19?

Chapter 20

121. Who does Mr. Dolphus Raymond offer a drink to in the beginning of Chapter 20?

122. The children discover that Mr. Dolphus Raymond is drinking what from his brown paper bag in Chapter 20?

123. What "offense" does Atticus say Mayella Ewell committed and then attempted to cover her guilt for in his

final statement to the jury?

124. Whom does Atticus Finch insinuate actually beat up Mayella Ewell in his closing statements to the jury?

125. What year does Atticus Finch say it is in his closing statements in Chapter 20?

126. What does Atticus Finch claim are the "great levelers" and the place in this country where "all men are

created equal" in Chapter 20?

Chapter 21

127. When Atticus opens the envelope that Calpurnia brings him at the courtroom in Chapter 21, he tells

the judge that the letter is from whom?

128. Who points out the children sitting in the balcony of the courtroom to Atticus in Chapter 21?

129. How long has the jury been out when Jem, Scout, and Dill return from eating lunch in Chapter 21?

130. What is the name of the court reporter who chain smokes in Chapter 21?

131. What is the verdict in the Tom Robinson trial in Chapter 21?

132. What do the black attendees of the trial do as Atticus Finch exits the courthouse in Chapter 21?

Chapter 22

133. What newspaper is Atticus reading when Scout and Jem awaken in Chapter 22?

134. What food item does Calpurnia say Tom Robinson's father sent over to the Finch's in Chapter 22?

135. What dessert does Miss Maudie offer to Jem and the other children in Chapter 22?

136. According to the narrator in Chapter 22, "Court-appointed defenses were usually given to" what latest

addition to the bar?

137. What does Dill say he's going to be when he grows up as Miss Rachel approaches them on the sidewalk in

Chapter 22?

138. Who is said to have spit in Atticus's face and threatened him in Chapter 22?

Chapter 23

139. What store does Miss Stephanie Crawford say she was leaving when she saw Atticus get threatened in

Chapter 23?

140. Jem says in Chapter 23 of Atticus, "He told me havin' a gun around's an invitation" for what?

141. Where is Enfield Prison Farm said to be in Chapter 23?

142. What will happen to Tom Robinson if he loses his appeal, according to Atticus in Chapter 23?

143. What does Jem believe the justice system should get rid of in Chapter 23?

144. Jem and Scout learn in Chapter 23 that the one juror that wanted to find Tom Robinson innocent was a

relative of what family?

Chapter 24

145. Where have Jem and Dill gone in the beginning of Chapter 24?

146. What month is it in the beginning of Chapter 24?

147. Scout says ___ "always filled me with vague apprehension and a firm desire to be elsewhere" in Chapter 24?

148. What word used in Chapter 24 refers to a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs,

principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess?

149. What is the name of Tom Robinson's wife?

150. How many bullet holes does Atticus say they found on Tom Robinson in Chapter 24?

Chapter 25

151. What bug is Scout about to kill in the beginning of Chapter 25 when Jem tells her to take it outside?

152. Jem and Dill had been heading home from where when they'd encountered Atticus going to the Robinson home,

according to Scout in Chapter 25?

153. What does Dill say the children were playing in front of Tom Robinson's residence when Atticus arrived in

Chapter 25?

154. Who writes a scathing editorial in the newspaper about the Tom Robinson ordeal in Chapter 25?

155. Who "told Aunt Alexandra in Jem’s presence (“Oh foot, he’s old enough to listen.”) that Mr. Ewell said it made

one down and about two more to go" in Chapter 25?

156. What word from Chapter 25 refers to generous actions or donations to aid the poor, ill, or helpless?

Chapter 26

157. What grade in school has Scout begun in the beginning of Chapter 26?

158. Jem is in what grade in school in the beginning of Chapter 26?

159. Who does Cecil Jacobs describe in Chapter 26 as having "been after the Jews and he’s puttin‘ ’em in prisons

and he’s taking away all their property and he won’t let any of ‘em out of the country"?

160. What quotation does Scout cite in Chapter 26 when her teacher asks for the definition of Democracy?

161. What kind of government does Miss Gates say Germany operates under in Chapter 26?

162. What study does Scout say she's never been a fan of in Chapter 26?

Chapter 27

163. Scout says in Chapt. 27 that Bob Ewell is "only man I ever heard of who was fired from the WPA for" what?

164. Who does Scout refer to as the "Welfare lady" in Chapter 27?

165. Who has gone out of his way to make a job for Helen Robinson in Chapter 27?

166. What does "NRA" refer to in the novel?

167. Of Misses Tutti and Frutti Barber, Scout says in Chapter 27 that they "were rumored to be Republicans,

having migrated from Clanton, Alabama" in what year?

168. What are the first names of Misses Tutti and Frutti?

Chapter 28

169. What does Scout dress up as for the Halloween parade in Chapter 28?

170. Scout describes the lament of the blue jay in Chapter 28 as a repetitive sounding of what phrase?

171. How much money does Jem give to Scout to spend at the Halloween pageant in Chapter 28?

172. Who does Jem leave Scout to hang out with at the Halloween pageant in Chapter 28?

173. What is the language of the Creek Indians?

174. Who is killed in Chapter 28?

Chapter 29

175. What does Sheriff Tate say he believes saved Scout's life in Chapter 29?

176. How has Jem been injured in Chapter 29?

177. Who does Scout point out as the person that saved her and Jem from their attacker in Chapter 29?

Chapter 30

178. Who is the doctor that has been called to see to Jem in Chapter 30?

179. How does the Sheriff contend that Mr. Ewell died in Chapter 30?

180. What flowers does Miss Maudie grow and obsess over in the novel?

To Kill a Mockingbird Character Chart Directions: In the chart below, write down any details you remember about each character listed. Focus on describing each character’s personality and appearance.

Scout (Jean

Louise Finch)

Jem (Jeremy

Atticus Finch)

Atticus Finch

Calpurnia

Dill (Charles

Baker Harris)

Miss Caroline

Miss Rachel

Haverford

Miss Stephanie

Crawford

Miss Maudie

Atkinson

Walter

Cunningham

Burris Ewell

Boo Radley

(Arthur)

Nathan Radley

Uncle Jack

Aunt Alexandra

Francis