Wayne Flynt’s Friendship With Harper Lee Was Whimsical, Treasured

By Karim Shamsi-Basha

So many people in this country, and around the world, know about Harper Lee and “To Kill a Mockingbird.” But one person in Alabama knows her perhaps better than anyone else.

Wayne Flynt knew the renowned author on a deep and personal level. He is professor emeritus in the Department of History at Auburn University and author of 13 books. Flynt is one of the most recognized scholars of Southern history.

In his latest book, “Mockingbird Songs,” Flynt recounts his friendship with the famed author that lasted decades. The correspondence between the two during this time is published in the book. These letters offer a fascinating look into the mind and heart of an author who changed the world with one book.Originally, racism drove Flynt away from Alabama, but the publication of “To Kill a Mockingbird” implored him to come back in the mid-1960s. In his 2011 memoir, “Keeping the Faith,” Flynt wrote, “I had read … ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ and concluded that if Monroe County, Alabama, could produce a novelist as gifted and tolerant as she, there must be hope for the future.”

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