Taking A Trip Around The Literary Side Of Alabama
A bouquet of flowers are displayed in honor of author Harper Lee at the Monroe County Heritage Museum old courthouse, Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, in Monroeville, Ala. Lee, the elusive author of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” died Friday according to her publisher Harper Collins. She was 89. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Brynn Anderson / Associated Press
In the second of his three-part series on the “Literary South” on “City Lights,” travel contributor Kevin Benefield takes listeners to Monroeville and Montgomery in Alabama.
Monroeville served as the childhood home for both Harper Lee and Truman Capote. In fact, Benefield explains, the two grew up living next door to one another. The city is also the inspiration for the fictional town of Maycomb, where Lee’s novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” is set.
Benefield says visitors should start their tour of the city at the red brick courthouse. Now serving as a museum featuring both Lee and Capote, the building rose to prominence after Lee’s novel was published.
“The undeniable highlight of the courthouse visit is the courtroom,” Benefield says, “which has been restored to its 1930s appearance.”
After picking up a map that compares Monroeville to Lee’s Maycomb, Benefield suggests a stop at Mel’s Dairy Dream, a burger and shake restaurant located on the site of Lee’s childhood home. Referring to the remains of a wall that once separated Lee’s and Capote’s homes, Benefield says “It’s easy to imagine the pair sitting on these same sun-warmed stones 80 years ago admiring childhood treasures … It’s hard to believe that those two little people would go on to change the face of American literature.”
Benefield then heads to Alabama’s capital, Montgomery, where bookworms will find the only museum dedicated to F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. While the couple only lived in the house for six months during 1931, Benefield says their time in Montgomery “represented one of the longest periods of stability in their dizzyingly vagabond life.” Galleries are set up throughout the house, with each room chronicling a different time period during the couple’s life.
You can find more on the “Literary South” series in the latest issue of Southbound Magazine or on its website.
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