To Kill A Mocking Bird

On this day 57 years ago one of the best known American novels of all time was published-To Kill A Mocking Bird.

Later it was turned into an Academy Award winning movie starring Gregory Peck.

The book was written by Harper Lee. Harper Lee died about a year ago and another novel she had been working on was found and published. It did not achieve the same level of fame as To Kill A Mocking Bird. 

Here are  some interesting facts about that famous book.

$3.95  Price of the book upon its release in 1960. Available on Amazon for $5.89 paperback.

40  Number of languages into which “Mockingbird” has been translated

40+ million  Copies of the book that have been sold worldwide

893 weeks  Time “Mockingbird” has spent on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books—a list that has only been around since 1993

1961 Year Harper Lee won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

12 years  Duration of the ban placed on “Mockingbird” by the Plaquemines Parish School District’s in Louisiana—it was lifted in October 2013

“To Kill A Mockingbird,” considered one of the best novels of the 20th century, is also one of the most controversial. According to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, the Harper Lee novel is one of the most challenged and banned classical books. Many of these objections come from parents, school administrators or advocacy groups who contend that its racially and sexually-charged themes are inappropriate for young readers.

$1,688,064.68  Amount Lee earned in royalties from sales of “Mockingbird” in the first six months of December 2009 alone.

103  Age of Lee’s sister and former lawyer, Alice, before her death in November 2014

12/25/62  U.S. release date for the film adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird”

6 Number of Academy and Golden Globes awards the film won (three of each)

2 million Size of the publisher’s first printing of “Go Set a Watchman”

20 years  Amount of time after “Mockingbird” ends that “Watchman” takes place, despite the fact that Lee wrote “Watchman” first

1964  The last time Harper Lee gave an interview

0  Amount of publicity the 89-year-old author is expected to do for the new book