Monroeville: Literary Capital of Alabama

Images of America: Alabama

by Kathy McCoy

Monroeville is the county sear of Monroe County, a count older than the state of Alabama itself. Located in what was the western Creek Nation, Monroeville became the center of county business in 1832, eighteen years after the surrender of the Creeks to Andrew Jackson. Monroeville soon became a powerful political base in the state. In the 20th century, it hosted visits from Big Jim Folsom as well as George Wallace, a powerful young orator who would change the face of American politics. Today, Monroeville is known as the childhood home of internationally known authors Harper Lee and Truman Capote. Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill A Mockingbird was set in a small town that still Southern town based on Monroeville. Many of Capote's short stories and novels were drawn from his Monroeville experiences. Visitors from around the world come to the town that still remembers when Truman rented the town's only taxi for the weekend and drove around for days visiting . Townsfolk like to talk about the time Gregory Peck came to town to meet the many of the people who were inspirations for the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird. As other writers from Monroeville emerge, such as Mark Childress and Cynthia Tucker, one wonders how many more stories the town holds, as well as what is so special about a small, rural southwestern Alabama town call Monroeville.

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 1998

About the author

Kathleen McCoy, PhD is a psychotherapist and the award-winning author of a dozen books including ALA's Best Books for Young Adults winner The Teenage Body Book (Random House, 2008) and Understanding Your Teenager's Depression (Perigee, 2005). Dr. McCoy was the columnist for Seventeen's "Sex and Your Body" and she is a former editor of Teen. Dr. McCoy has also written for national publications such as Readers Digest, The New York Times, Family Circle, Mademoiselle, TV Guide and The Journal of Clinical Child Psychology. Dr. McCoy and her husband recently moved from Los Angeles to Florence, Arizona, a small historic town where they live with their four cats Gus, Maggie, SweetPea and Hamish.