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In today’s #BelieveAllWomen environment, due process isn’t what it used to be. It’s time for To Kill a Mockingbird to give up its treasured place in American culture. The 1960 novel by Harper Lee was published to instant acclaim, has sold more than 30 million copies, and is ubiquitous in high-school curricula. The 1962 movie version, starring Gregory Peck, is a classic in itself and won three Academy Awards. A play based on the novel is about to open on Broadway. This is quite the résumé for a book that, prior to the publication of a sequel in 2015 that...

The controversy over Harper Lee's new "old" novel, "Go Set a Watchman," might be the most bizarre controversy yet in a summer of bizarre and unlikely explosions of national piety. Atticus Finch, the patriarchal figure of "To Kill a Mockingbird," has been regarded as an unexpected hero in a region that many readers thought was unworthy of heroes -- mothers named their children after him -- and now many feel betrayed because he emerges in the new novel as a man with unexpected blemishes, an authentic representative of his time (the 1950s) and place (a small town in the South)....

Don’t throw away your copy of “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Atticus Finch didn’t betray you. Your childhood admiration was not misplaced, and your hero is not fallen. Be still, gentle reader, and let me explain. Atticus Finch is a fictional character. He was created to communicate a message on behalf of his creator, Harper Lee. You met him on the pages of Mockingbird. And some think they have re-met him this week in the unfortunate publication of an early effort titled “Go Set A Watchman.” The new Atticus, instead of being a paragon of fairness and equality, is one more...

In American letters and mythology, there are few characters as noble as Atticus Finch. The gentleman, lawyer, and single father from Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” has been the very model of masculine decency for decades. Whether through the dulcet delivery of the classic novel or the buttoned-up dignity of Gregory Peck’s movie portrayal, Atticus has been loved as few figures of fiction have. As reviews trickle out for Lee’s “Go Set a Watchman,” written before, but taking place after, her masterpiece, one bit of news has dominated: Atticus Finch is a racist. Had he been a historical figure,...

Two startling revelations about long-hidden work by "To Kill a Mockingbird" author Harper Lee have stunned readers awaiting Tuesday's release of her new book, "Go Set a Watchman." Lee's attorney, Tonja Carter, hinted Monday in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that the reclusive author may have written a third novel. Carter wrote that she recently examined the contents of a safe-deposit box in Lee's hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, and saw the manuscript for "Watchman" lying "underneath a stack of a significant number of pages of another typed text." "Was it an earlier draft of 'Watchman,' or of 'Mockingbird,'...

This Zimmerman story sadly follows the plot of To Kill A Mockingbird. Zimmerman is falsely accused of committing the crime to provide cover for an unfortunate, in this case tragic, event that caused harm and embarrassed a community. The racist mob (the media, Obama, Sharpton, et al.) repeatedly wants to lynch Zimmerman (Tom from TKAMB) but the steadfast O'Meara (Atticus) proves beyond a doubt that he is not guilty of a crime even though the act was committed. In this version, the jury is not racist and the accused is exonnnerated because he is innocent. The mob wants revenge and...

Did you ever consider the lead character in Harper Lee's fabulous "To Kill A Mockingbird" to be a feminized male not in any traditional sense manly? Atticus Finch, one of the greatest male figures in modern American literature? Well, that's what Jesse Kornbluth wrote at Huffington Post on the 50th anniversary of this fabulous book being published. For those that are fans of this novel like so many Americans, the following quotes from this astonishingly silly piece are guaranteed to offend: "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a woman's book. Written by a woman, Harper Lee, but more, written by a...