Ala. town to go back in time for Harper Lee novel
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — As Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman arrives July 14, so will a grownup "Scout" Finch.
Monroeville will celebrate the launch of Lee's new novel by becoming the fictional Alabama town of Maycomb as it would have been 60 years ago.
A grownup Jean Louise "Scout" Finch will return from New York to visit with her aging father, Atticus, at the town made famous in To Kill a Mockingbird. There will be vintage cars and trucks parked around the 1903 Monroe County courthouse and about 250 fans of the famous novel will take part in a marathon reading of Watchman, according to Alabama Department of Tourism and Travel Director Lee Sentell.
Wayne Flynt, a close friend of the author, will join other Alabama historians sitting in rocking chairs off the northeast corner of the town square to tell stories. It is the same building where the La Salle Hotel stood and where in 1961 Gregory Peck and his wife stayed when they visited Lee, according to library director Bunny Nobles.
The reunion of the grownup Scout and her father will be on the southwest corner of the square where Lee's father A.C. Lee (and the fictional Atticus) practiced law, according to Chamber of Commerce director Sandy Smith.
About 250 fans of To Kill a Mockingbird will be able to join the marathon reading of Watchman upstairs in the museum, which was once an oval courtroom, made famous by Gregory Peck in the film version of Mockingbird, according to museum director Stephanie Rogers.
Guides will lead walking tours around the square and point out locations that inspired scenes in both of Lee's novels, the chamber director said.
One of those locations is on the south side of the square. Early in To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout walks from her father's law office past stores in this area. The Prop & Gavel restaurant now occupies the space that V.J. Elmore's did in Lee's youth, and where Scout's brother, Jem, bought her a sparkly baton, said Sentell.
In Watchman, the grownup Scout walks south on Alabama Street toward the Finch place where Sentell said she experiences the first of numerous surprises in the new novel.
People who participate in the marathon reading will receive a "readers" certificate and those who purchase a $20 family membership at the library will get a hand fan with the cover of the novel on one side and a vintage photo of the La Salle Hotel on the back, said the library director.