On this day in Alabama history: Harper Lee won Pulitzer Prize for 'Mockingbird'

Published On: 05.01.17 |

By: 9316

On this day in Alabama history: Harper Lee won Pulitzer Prize for ‘Mockingbird’

May 1 feature

President George W. Bush awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to author Harper Lee during a ceremony Monday, Nov. 5, 2007, in the East Room. "To Kill a Mockingbird has influenced the character of our country for the better. It's been a gift to the entire world. As a model of good writing and humane sensibility, this book will be read and studied forever," said the President about Harper Lee's work. (Photograph by Eric Draper, White House, Wikipedia)

May 1, 1961

Monroeville native Harper Lee won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The prize followed a long list of awards for the novel, which has sold more than 50 million copies to date. The 1962 film version of To Kill a Mockingbird, adapted by screenwriter Horton Foote, won three Academy Awards and was nominated for eight. In 2015, HarperCollins Publishers unexpectedly published an unrevised, early draft of “To Kill a Mockingbird” titled “Go Set a Watchmen,” which sold 720,000 copies in the first 36 hours of sales. An adaption of “To Kill a Mockingbird” is expected to open on Broadway later this year.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

(Bob Blalock, Alabama NewsCenter)

Memorial to Atticus Finch of “To Kill a Mockingbird” at the 1903 Old Courthouse Museum, Monroeville, 2010. (The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

Historic mural in Monroeville depicting the Harper Lee novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” 2010. (The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.