For this edition of Weekend Reading we thought we’d pay tribute to the titan of Alabama letters, Harper Lee. Her book “To Kill a Mockingbird” became an instant success in 1960 and went on to become the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel for that year. Her death was announced by the New York Times this morning.

• Harper Lee’s Abandoned True Crime Novel
  • “In 1978, Lee travelled to Alexander City, Alabama, to research a murder trial that she planned to turn into a book. The family of a lawyer involved in the case still hopes that a manuscript might materialize.ll at Harvard–the university’s college paper profiled its most curious student.”

• Harper Lee and Truman Capote: A Collaboration in Mischief
  • “One summer about 85 years ago in a small Alabama town, a scrappy tomboy named Nelle met her new next door neighbor, True, a bookish, dapper dresser with a high-pitched voice and a mischievous streak.”

• No Name is Safe
  • “It has been a bad summer for the iconic characters of Southern literature. A couple of weeks ago, a New Hampshire man named Huckleberry Finn was accused of rape. This was surely not what his parents had in mind when they named him.”

Enjoy your weekend and we’ll see you next week!