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    The Monroeville staging of To Kill a Mockingbird had charms that no other production could match. Audience members sat in chairs and risers placed outside the courthouse, next to sidewalks where Nelle roller-skated as a child. Huge pecan trees provided a natural canopy above the sets representing porches on the street where the Finches live. The cast, consisting of residents—businesspeople, farmers, students—rehearsed for weeks in the evenings, trying to recapture the Depression in Alabama, though few could personally recall it. Some hoped that Nelle might make an encouraging appearance at their inaugural opening night, but they were destined to be disappointed. “She sorts of hates publicity,” said Nelle’s agent at McIntosh and Otis, an understatement for those who were unfamiliar with Nelle’s ways by 1990 . “The book stands. Which in a way is wonderful.” 15
    The first act unfolded under trees by the side of the courthouse, where mockingbirds can be heard singing in the branches. When Atticus raised a rifle to shoot an imaginary mad dog in the distance, the children in the audience gleefully covered their ears. Bang ! echoed off the storefronts on the square. For the scene when Atticus defies a lynch mob bent on kidnapping his client, the courthouse’s side door doubled as the entrance to the jailhouse. Across the street was the actual jail Nelle had in mind.
    During intermission, the actor playing the sheriff called the names of 12 white males in the audience for jury duty—the only citizens eligible to serve under the laws of Alabama in the 1930 s. Coolers heaped with ice offered drinks and snacks during the break to combat the weather that, as early as May, is already muggy.
    Once inside the courthouse for the start of the second act, the audience settled into the pewlike benches. Up in the “colored” gallery, members of a local black church sat and watched, a poignant reminder of how things once were. In the jury box, a dozen white men prepared to hear the case.
    Everyone knew the trial’s outcome, although in the stuffy courtroom built in 1903 , with one ceiling fan turning tiredly high above, there was a sense that the sins of history could be reversed if only the jury would find Tom Robinson not guilty. When the foreman led the jury back into the courtroom, Robinson was again convicted for a crime he hadn’t committed.
    The play was such a success—both in attendance and for the boost it gave civic pride—that the following year, 1991 , the Monroe County Heritage Museums hired a director to capitalize further on Monroeville’s link with To Kill a Mockingbird. In light of such a tribute to the novel and its creator, few could have anticipated that it would be the start of an uneasy relationship between Nelle and the town.
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    As the annual performances of To Kill a Mockingbird in Monroeville became more popular, and the Monroe County Heritage Museums tended to put more emphasis on Monroeville’s link to Harper Lee, the author was not pleased to see that her birthplace was getting on the Mockingbird bandwagon, so to speak. For her, this meant more requests for autographs, more fan mail, and more occasions when strangers would quiz her about the book. At a Christmas party one year in Monroeville, an out-of-towner began chatting her up about To Kill a Mockingbird. She turned and walked out. 16
    By now Nelle was in her 70 s and weary of the attention connected with her novel. She had put that far behind her, along with the film. She rebuffed attempts by Mary Badham, the child actor who played Scout, to communicate with her. “Mary acts like that book is the Bible,” Nelle mentioned to Kathy McCoy, the former director of the Monroe County Heritage Museums. 17 According to a terse note in the museums’ archives, “G.P. [Gregory Peck] told M.B. not to try to contact N.L.” Not even invitations to