Happy 50th anniversary to America's greatest novel.

[Simba]

A long time ago, I bought a paperback to wile away a railway journey. Much-travelled, dog-eared, worn and battered, it still sits in pride of place in my study. Now, half a century since its first publication, I've bought a new 'Special 50th Anniversary Edition' hardback so the ol' favourite can be honourably retired at last.

Stand up, Miss Nell Harper Lee of Monroeville, Alabama. 'To Kill A Mocking Bird' was your only novel - and the greatest ever to come out of America.

SALUTE.

[AKH]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8740693.stm

[curry1]

 

[ink]

A long time ago, I bought a paperback to wile away a railway journey. Much-travelled, dog-eared, worn and battered, it still sits in pride of place in my study. Now, half a century since its first publication, I've bought a new 'Special 50th Anniversary Edition' hardback so the ol' favourite can be honourably retired at last.

Stand up, Miss Nell Harper Lee of Monroeville, Alabama. 'To Kill A Mocking Bird' was your only novel - and the greatest ever to come out of America.

SALUTE.

I would whole Heartedly Disagree,


Don't we just love opinions 

greatest Book/Books/short stories to come out of America, was written by A guy born and raised in Texas, in 1932 and was in fact a short story

[maddafinga]

What writer and short story are you talking about there Ink? 

Also, I did really love Mockingbird, but I don't know that it was the greatest novel ever written in America.  Try reading a bit of Cormac McCarthy if you want serious literature that is also very strong on story and character. 

[Tupac]

I would whole Heartedly Disagree,


Don't we just love opinions 

greatest Book/Books/short stories to come out of America, was written by A guy born and raised in Texas, in 1932 and was in fact a short story

Im gonna take a stab and say J. Frank Dobie?

[Chalenge]

Mockingbird was great in 1960. It still is but not so much a 'period piece' anymore. Slaughterhouse-Five was great in the 70s. A Confederacy of Dunces in the 80s and so on.

If you want to understand why we are where we are today you might want to read The Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison) which was published in the 50s. Its amazing how novels like these define the period and can help readers understand the people that come from the same period and their views.

[ink]

Im gonna take a stab and say J. Frank Dobie?

nope

What writer and short story are you talking about there Ink?  

Also, I did really love Mockingbird, but I don't know that it was the greatest novel ever written in America.  Try reading a bit of Cormac McCarthy if you want serious literature that is also very strong on story and character.  

I will quote a poem he did from memory

"The Lion Banner sways and falls in the horror haunted gloom
     A Scarlet Dragon rustles by born on winds of doom.
In heaps the shining horseman lie, there thrusting lances brake.
    Dead hands grope in the shadows, the stars turn pale with fright
for this is the Dragons hour the triumph of fear and night."

(this may not be exact)

this was his suicide note

All fled, all done, so lift me on the pyre; The feast is over and the lamps expire.

[mbailey]

  Robert E Howard  

[Belial]

Oh...we don't read in PA...

[maddafinga]

Yeah, ok.  I had to look him up.  I'd only ever heard the name in association with Lovecraft and didn't really know anything at all about him.  Pretty familiar with his most famous character however.  I'll have to look into picking up some of those short stories and reading them.  Very few people can create an entire genre like that, and I love finding new stuff to read.  Thanks.  

Edit: Slaughterhouse 5 is still great, and Confederacy of Dunces is still irritating in its own interesting way. The Invisible Man is excellent too.  Great books transcend era, even if they are a definable product of a period.   

[007Rusty]

    

[ink]

one of my favorite books is "The Count of Monti Cristo" 

[fbWldcat]

I'm a huge fan of "Jurassic Park," a lot of Crichton, Clive Cussler. "To Kill a Mocking Bird" was a pretty good book.

My favorite older novels are ones by Jim Kjelgaard. "Irish Red, Big Red, Outlaw Red." But those books shouldn't really be understood by any country-fied city folk. 

[shiv]

To Kill a Mockingbird has this big reputation and all that but the thing about it is that it's flat-out entertaining and suspenseful and fun.  Great stuff.