If the child is central to the novel, in the film version (1962) Gregory Peck overshadowed all. Atticus and Peck became synonymous with the other, ensuring the book's posterity.

Mocking Bird's status as the Great American Novel remained uncontested because Lee never followed it up with another book. Not till 2015 that is. Written before Mocking Bird but published more than half a century later Go Set a Watchman told of a very different Atticus and Finch. Atticus had grown embittered and (the horror!) even racist. Scott was now an adult coming to terms with the realisation that her father might not be the bravest man of them all. If Scott is battling with the fact that her father defends segregation during the civil rights movement, readers too roiled and raged against this revelation. To learn that our childhood heroes are not heroes is betrayal but it is also an opportunity to grow up. Even while the book might have disappointed most readers and all fans, it quickly made it to the bestseller list, establishing yet again Lee's undisputed place in the world of letters.

Lee is a rare author whose book is legion, while she has remained a recluse. Her craving for anonymity, her unwillingness to speak to the press and rare public appearances only added to the aura of her work. Mocking Bird was never diluted by its author's overreach into the public. Even while she might have stayed away from the gaze the tributes to her flowed in from readers who'd read her as a child, writers who loved her work and even the President of the United States who said, "Through the uncorrupted eyes of a child, she showed us the beautiful complexity of our common humanity, and the importance of striving for justice in our own lives, our communities, and our country."

Lee will be always be celebrated for reminding us to place our humanity first.

Atticus Finch

Harper Lee (1926-2016): Walking in Another’s Shoes

Harper Lee: Killing Her Darlings