About the Author

Harper Lee was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She is the author of the acclaimed To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman, which became a phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller when it was published in July 2015. Ms. Lee received the Pulitzer Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and numerous other literary awards and honors. She died on February 19, 2016.

Sissy Spacek has been one of film's most respected actresses for more than three decades. Her many honors include an Academy Award(R)(Coal Miner's Daughter), five additional Oscar(R) nominations (Carrie, Missing, The River, Crimes of the Heart, and In the Bedroom), three Golden Globe Awards and numerous critics awards. Some of Spacek's other film credits include Raggedy Man (directed by husband Jack Fisk), A Home at the End of the World, The Straight Story, Affliction, Badlands, and The Long Walk Home.

Reviews

Lee's beloved American classics makes its belated debut on audio (after briefly being available in the 1990s for the blind and libraries through Books on Tape) with the kind of classy packaging that may spoil listeners for all other audiobooks. The two CD slipcases housing the 11 discs not only feature art mirroring Mary Schuck's cover design but also offers helpful track listings for each disk. Many viewers of the 1962 movie adaptation believe that Lee was the film's narrator, but it was actually an unbilled Kim Stanley who read a mere six passages and left an indelible impression. Competing with Stanley's memory, Spacek forges her own path to a victorious reading. Spacek reads with a slight Southern lilt and quiet authority. Told entirely from the perspective of young Scout Finch, there's no need for Spacek to create individual voices for various characters but she still invests them all with emotion. Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1960 novel, which quietly stands as one of the most powerful statements of the Civil Rights movement, has been superbly brought to audio. Available as a Perennial paperback. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Harper Lee's coming-of-age classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, tells the story of six-year-old Scout Finch, her older brother Jem, and their father, Atticus, a small-town Alabama lawyer assigned to defend Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of rape. The reaction of the town, the dignity of Robinson, and the character of their father affect both children as they navigate the path from childhood innocence to adult understanding. The 1962 film adaptation starring Gregory Peck is a classic itself, winning three Academy Awards. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Spacek, with her lilting Southern accent, perfectly captures the voice of Scout, the young girl whose life is thrown into turmoil when her father, the upright and highly ethical lawyer Atticus Finch, takes on the defense of a black man accused of raping a white woman. Their sleepy Alabama town may never be the same and Spacek's exceptional pacing propels this Pulitzer Prize-winner-a staple of many high school reading lists-to its inexorable conclusion. The 1962 film, starring Gregory Peck (who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Atticus Finch), was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1995. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.