This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/26/2022
LEE, Harper (1926–2016). To Kill A Mockingbird. Philadelphia & New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, [1960]. 8vo. Original publisher’s green cloth–backed boards; original unclipped ($3.95) dust jacket designed by Shirley Smith (colors faded on front panel with some creasing or light wear at edges, spine panel gently creased with few tiny chips at extreme ends, small spot of old adhesive ghosting near top edge verso); cloth folding box. FIRST EDITION of Lee’s classic novel and winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize. In the FIRST ISSUE dust jacket with the photo of Lee credited to Truman Capote on rear panel. The rear flap includes reviews by Shirley Ann Grau and Phyllis McGinley which is uncommon and draws much debate as to whether these reviews came first or did the Jonathan Daniels review which is most often seen. A strong case can be made for Grau and McGinley reviews having first priority as they were replaced by Daniels’ in the second printing and an early advertisement established that Grau and McGinley read advance copies and “poured out their enthusiasm… weeks before publication of the book”. TIPPED IN WITH HARPER LEE’S SIGNATURE on half–title. “Harper Lee’s only novel touched a nerve in American society when it was first published… The author claimed that her story of racial bias in the sleepy fictional Alabama town of Maycomb was pure imagination, but reporters who visited her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, on the 30th anniversary of the book’s publication found remarkable similarities to the novel in both setting and character. In essence, the racial ills chronicled in the novel appear to have been realistically drawn from the author’s life” (100 Banned Books, pp. 404–405). The novel still draws controversy today with it being challenged by many high schools and parents throughout the United States who object to either the language being used or the way in which race is represented. The Committee on Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association lists the novel as being among the 10 most frequently challenged books today.