One of the most talked-about favorite books of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird was the first and only novel written by Harper Lee, a lifelong friend since childhood of author Truman Capote.
At one point in the two year-long writing process, Lee became so tired and frustrated that she threw her unfinished manuscript out of the window. Luckily for the literary world, her agent demanded that she collect her novel-in-progress from the snow bank and get back to work.
First published in 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961, and has to date sold an estimated 30,000,000 copies. The editors at Reader’s Digest were enthusiastic early fans, adding Lee’s novel to their condensed book series, which helped stimulate mass public acceptance.
British librarians have called Lee’s classic the one book every adult should read before they die, and the Library of
Congress has placed To Kill a Mockingbird second only to the Bible on a short list of books most often described as “making a difference.”
Set in a small Southern town in the mid 1930s, To Kill a Mockingbird is a social commentary-courtroom drama -comingof age story told through the eyes of a young girl, Scout. Scout and her older brother Jem learn firsthand about racial prejudice and social injustice as they watch their lawyer father unsuccessfully defend a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman.
To Kill a Mockingbird appears on just about every favorite books list, and has never been out of print since its original publication.
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An outsider is smooene who has not been born and raised in a place and does not subscribe to the prevailing belief system. You can be born and raised there and question the prevailing wisdom that makes you a rebel or a contrarian but not an outsider. (You’re a thorn in their side, but they have to own you.) You can move in or marry into a place and basically agree (or not let anyone know you disagree) with the prevailing wisdom. That makes you an insider, even if you come from the far side of the moon. So an outsider is smooene who is not from a place, comes in from somewhere else and refuses to submit or subordinate his beliefs to the common way of thinking. Second question to ensure the inclusion of outsiders, you have to allow, accept (not shun), even encourage others freedom of belief and freedom of expression.