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receive honors could induce Nelle to depart from her well-worn path. Twice, Huntingdon College in the 1990 s asked her to attend graduation. She never replied. 18 The University of Alabama succeeded in awarding her an honorary degree in 1993 (perhaps the appeal for Nelle was closure after never having graduated), but all she would say to the audience was “Thank you.”
    The distance she felt from her only novel was unmistakable in a foreword to the 35 th anniversary edition in 1993 . “Please spare Mockingbird an Introduction,” she wrote.
    As a reader I loathe Introductions. To novels, I associate Introductions with long-gone authors and works that are being brought back into print after decades of internment. Although Mockingbird will be 35 this year, it has never been out of print and I am still alive, although very quiet. Introductions inhibit pleasure, they kill the joy of anticipation, they frustrate curiosity. The only good thing about Introductions is that in some cases they delay the dose to come. Mockingbird still says what it has to say; it has managed to survive without preamble.
    With dismay, she watched the transformation of Monroeville into the “Literary Capital of Alabama.” After volunteers had finished painting 12 -foot-high outdoor murals of scenes from the novel, Nelle pronounced them “graffiti.” When a television crew asked to film portions of the play and interview the actors, she responded through her agent, “Not just no, but hell no.” 19
    According to Reverend Thomas Butts, one of her closest friends and the retired minister for Monroeville’s First Methodist Church, “She isn’t too happy about any of it.” Apparently her friend and counselor was referring to the rise of Mockingbird tourism in Monroeville, which as of 2005 brings in about 25 , 000 visitors annually. Said Reverend Butts, her attitude is a combination of wanting privacy and resenting people looking to profit, without permission, from her or her book.
    â€œShe would give you the shirt off her back,” added the reverend’s wife, “but do not try to take it without permission.” 20
    Going ahead without permission caused the most serious showdown between Nelle and the Monroe County Heritage Museums. It was over a cookbook.
    Calpurnia’s Cookbook, named for the Finches’ cook and housekeeper, was the typical kind of recipe collection assembled by churches to raise money. Only, in this case, the idea was that profits from the sale would support the museums. When Nelle got wind that one of her characters’ names would soon be appearing beside To Kill a Mockingbird pens, coffee mugs, and T-shirts in the courthouse museum gift shop, she threatened to sue. The entire printing of the cookbook, several thousand copies, had to be pulped.
    â€œI think it is an attempt to keep the characters from being exploited, as well as herself,” Reverend Butts said. “When people start using the characters from the book, it sort of fragments the book. They’re using it to promote their hamburgers or their automobiles or their own [things]. She wants the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird to stay back in the ’ 30 s where they belong. To drag them by the hair on their head into the 21 st Century is to do the characters an injustice.” 21
    In the town’s defense, the late- 20 th century hadn’t been kind to Monroeville. The only major industry, Vanity Fair, a lingerie factory, shut down some years ago, laying off hundreds of workers and pulling the plug on one of Monroe County’s main sources of tax revenue. Today, in many ways, Monroeville fits Nelle’s description of its alter ego, Maycomb, in the 1930 s. It’s “a tired old town,” except for the money spent by tourists on meals, gas, trinkets in the museum gift shop, and tickets to the annual play. Monroeville’s hope for a better day partly depends on promoting its