Montgomery:: Capital City Corners

When I was growing up in Monroeville, I cared little about the history of my town or state. I read "To Kill A Mockingbird" and I loved it, but to me history was as far from Monroeville and Alabama as I could get. Years later after I grew up and came to my senses I learned to love the history of my town and state. "Monroeville The Search for Harper Lee's Maycomb," is a must for the diehard Mockingbird fan. Like its companion book "Monroeville Literary Capital of Alabama" it has lots of pictures and a short history of the town that was the childhood home of Harper Lee and her friend Turman Capote, who was the model for Dill in "Mockingbird." Included in the book is a chapter "The Mysterious Neighbor" about the man who was the real life "Boo Radley" in town. Like his fictional counterpart, he spent his life hidden away in his house and was the terror of the Monroe Elementary School whose grounds were behind his house. Like the children in the book, when my mother was a small child, she said that any ball kicked into his yard was considered a lost ball. The pecans that fell into the school grounds from trees in his yard were never touched by the children. There are also pictures of the Mockingbird Players who perform the play based on the book every year at the Monroe County Heritage Museum. The museum which once served as the Monroe County Courthouse, contains the courtroom which was used as the model for the courtroom in the 1962 movie version of the book starring Gregory Peck. Both books are recommended for anyone who wants to know more about the small town in southwest Alabama that gave birth to two of the most remarkable writers of the 20th century.

While on a trip to the beach, I stopped off in Monroeville to visit the Mockingbird shrine. While there, I bought this book at the museum and was SO excited about the information that was found in it. There are so many similarities between the fictional Maycomb and the Monroeville in which Nelle Harper Lee grew up! For example, Monroeville, like Maycomb, had a strange citizen who got into trouble with the law when he was young and was locked up in his house by his father for years. This young man was never seen outside his house again and was considered a phantom by the town children, including Nelle Lee. The book will be a delight to all fans of the novel. I also strongly recommend a trip to Monroeville -- it will be well worth the time and effort for any true fan.