Atticus Finch: The Biography

Atticus Finch: The Biography

<div><b>Who was the real Atticus Finch? A prize-winning historian reveals the man behind the legend</b><br> </div><div><div><br></div><div>The publication of <i>Go Set a Watchman</i> in 2015 forever changed how we think about Atticus Finch. Once seen as a paragon of decency, he was reduced to a small-town racist. How are we to understand this transformation?</div><div> </div><div><br></div><div>In <i>Atticus Finch</i>, historian Joseph Crespino draws on exclusive sources to reveal how Harper Lee's father provided the central inspiration for each of her books. A lawyer and newspaperman, A. C. Lee was a principled opponent of mob rule, yet he was also a racial paternalist. Harper Lee created the Atticus of <i>Watchman</i> out of the ambivalence she felt toward white southerners like him. But when a militant segregationist movement arose that mocked his values, she revised the character in <i>To Kill a Mockingbird</i> to defend her father and to remind the South of its best traditions. A story of family and literature amid the upheavals of the twentieth century, <i>Atticus Finch</i> is essential to understanding Harper Lee, her novels, and her times.</div></div>