Nothing sounds more like quintessential Southern Sass than a title like Alabama Spitfire, and I’m happy to say that this book delivered on its title.
Alabama Spitfire is the biographical story of Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird. To open, the story starts with Nelle Harper Lee’s tomboy childhood in Monroeville, Alabama. It was there that she embodied the rough and tumble and sharp as a whip character that would one day become Scout.
Our young writer spent afternoons in her treehouse with her friend, Tru, making up stories about the town and people they could see below them. Young Nelle also spent time at the courthouse, watching her father, an attorney, argue his cases.
Touched by friendship, filled with words, and of the belief that skin color made not a bit of difference, Nelle made her way to New York City. There she worked, wrote, and reconnected with her told friend, Tru, Truman Capote. There she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. The incendiary success of her first title had her retreating from the public eye. She spent the rest of her life splitting her time between Alabama and New York City.
Bethany Hegedus brings all of the sweet southern nature that can be expected from this classic American story and author. Erin McGuire transforms those words into images of warm southern afternoons, long days spent at the typewritter, and the emotions of a public enamored with this story. I can’t recommend this endearing book enough.