Summary

A lifelong concern of Lee’s was taxes, and before To Kill a Mockingbird was even published, she claimed that “the Internal Revenue Service was keeping her from working” (192). The affluent had to pay a lot of taxes at the time, and Lee was extremely wealthy even before the book came out. Published in July of 1960, the book was an immediate success. Although she hated the taxes, Lee hated the publicity more.

When she went home, Lee was a “prodigal daughter,” and her “comings and goings were front-page news” (196). Soon enough her agents started talking about a second book, but writing a second novel proved to be very difficult for Lee. She found some relief in a farmhouse in Connecticut owned by her agents, but she eventually returned home when her father had another...