One of the most cherished stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has earned many distinctions since its publication in 1960. It won the Pulitzer Prize, was named the best novel of the twentieth century by librarians across the nation, and was voted by readers as America’s “most beloved novel” on PBS’s The Great American Read. It remains a staple of many high school reading lists across the country and has been translated into more than forty languages, selling more than forty million copies worldwide. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, Scout Finch, and her brother, Jem, as their father, Atticus—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a Black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

Harper Lee explores with rich humor and unswerving honesty the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man’s struggle for justice—but the weight of history will only tolerate so much.