Harper Lee

Wally Lamb, author of the critically acclaimed She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True and former Director of Creative Writing at University of Connecticut, discusses Scout's universally sympathetic voice and the ways in which To Kill a Mockingbird and all literature can act as an agent of change. Harper Lee: Hey Boo airs Monday April 2nd at 10 p.m. (check local listings).

Mark Childress, author of Crazy in Alabama, describes how Harper Lee's protagonist Scout Finch, the narrator of To Kill a Mockingbird, was a radical voice of change in the segregated south of his childhood. Harper Lee: Hey Boo airs Monday April 2nd at 10 p.m. (check local listings).

Novelist Richard Russo describes how he reluctantly read To Kill a Mockingbird as a student in Catholic school. Russo explains how the relationships described in the book influenced him as a writer and provided inspiration for his own characters in his Pulitzer prize-winning novel, Empire Falls. Harper Lee: Hey Boo airs Monday April 2nd at 10 p.m. (check local listings).

One of the biggest American bestsellers of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) was thought to be the first and only novel by Harper Lee, until now. On July 14, Go Set a Watchman will be released, featuring characters from Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Now, a newly updated version of Mary McDonagh Murphy’s 2012 documentary, Harper Lee: Hey, Boo, airs July 10 on PBS (check local listings).

Harper Lee: American Masters director Mary McDonagh Murphy met author Harper Lee on June 30, 2015, in Monroeville, Alabama, before the release of Lee’s second novel, Go Set a Watchman, on July 14, 2015. In an American Masters exclusive, Murphy reports on meeting Lee and interviews Lee’s lawyer, Tonja B. Carter, Lee’s current literary agent, Andrew Nurnberg and Lee’s friend, Wayne Flynt.

Questions about Harper Lee, her history and her new novel Go Set a Watchman are answered in a live Q&A with Harper Lee: American Masters filmmaker Mary McDonagh Murphy and Lee’s friend and benefactor Joy Brown. American Masters Executive Producer Michael Kantor moderated the panel that took place July 13, 2015, at Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center.