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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nMonroeville, Alabama<\/strong>, was the hometown of author Harper Lee (1926-2016) and the setting for her indelible novel To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>It\u2019s where her long friendship began with Truman Capote (1924-1984), who lived in Monroeville for most of his childhood and became the model for Lee\u2019s character Dill.A fascinating and quirky (in the way of small museums) tribute to Lee and Capote is housed in the Old Courthouse Museum, site of \u201cthe most famous courtroom in America\u201d (pictured). <\/p>\n\n\n\n The actual courthouse wasn\u2019t used for the Mockingbird<\/em> movie<\/a>, but the set designers arrived from Hollywood to inspect and measure, and their recreation copies the original almost exactly. Apparently Lee thought Gregory Peck was too youthful to play Atticus Finch\u2014that is, until he went into a dressing room to try on his costume: three-piece suit, glasses, and pocket watch. \u201cHe came out a middle-aged man,\u201d she said, realizing he\u2019d be perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n Montgomery, Alabama<\/strong>, is where Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald (1900-1948) grew up and where, in 1931-1932, she and her husband Scott (1896-1940) lived. That house, in the Old Cloverdale neighborhood, is called a \u201cmuseum,\u201d but it\u2019s more impactful for knowing you\u2019re walking where this star-crossed literary couple walked, seeing what they saw, knowing he worked on Tender Is the Night<\/a><\/em> in that period and she on her only novel, Save Me the Waltz<\/a><\/em>. Some gilded age clothing (pink suit!) and evening gowns, Gatsby<\/em> edition memorabilia, and biographical profiles of people they hobnobbed with are on display, along with handwritten pages, and Zelda\u2019s artwork. Is it really 98 years since The Great Gatsby<\/em> was published<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The house is an Airbnb and a party venue, so it\u2019s enduring quite a bit of wear. We arrived at the same time as a trio of women and were put off by the \u201cclosed for private party\u201d sign, but they\u2019d encountered that a few days before. We collectively decided not to take it seriously and all walked in. No problem. No party.<\/p>\n\n\n Montgomery<\/strong> is also home to the Hank Williams Museum, a magnet for country music fans. It has a few nice touches: his music plays throughout<\/a>. On view are his baby blue Cadillac, some of his gorgeous Western-style suits, and a selection of the romance comics he liked to read. \u201cWhy do you read that junk?\u201d friends would ask, and he\u2019d say they gave him most of the ideas for his songs. \u201cI\u2019m so Lonesome I Could Cry<\/a>\u201d comes to mind. Is this stretching the notion of \u201cliterary\u201d too far?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Milledgeville, Georgia<\/strong>, was home to one of the greatest Southern Gothic authors, National Book Award-winner Flannery O\u2019Connor (1925-1964). We visited Andalusia, the farm where she lived in the last years of her life and where she raised her prized peacocks. There\u2019s now a museum there dedicated to her work. We also saw from the outside the house in Milledgeville where, as a teenager, she lived with her mother\u2019s family while her father\u2019s health declined. <\/p>\n\n\n When her letters were published in 1979 (The Habit of Being<\/em><\/a>), I read them and it was painful to see in the museum the kind of typewriter she used. Like her father, O\u2019Connor had lupus, and in the days before word processing, revisions to stories and novels required retyping\u2014a massive chore for her. However, the trials of the disease were integral to her experience. As writer Alice McDermott said, \u201cIt was the illness, I think, which made her the writer she is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Atlanta, Georgia<\/strong>, we saw Roundabout Theater\u2019s production of Charles Fuller\u2019s Pulitzer Prize winning (1982) story, A Soldier\u2019s Play<\/em><\/a>, directed by Kenny Leon. <\/em>The production has a great cast, with Norm Lewis and Eugene Lee in the leads. Some of the themes are a little dated, but the overall message about the effects of racism is not. Even if the play hadn\u2019t been so good, it would have been worth it to see the renovated Fox Theatre, with its fabulous Moorish interior. The picture can’t do it justice!<\/p>\n\n\n (The Amazon links to books above are affiliate links. I receive a small compensation for the recommendation if you click through on them and make a purchase. The product cost is the same to you whether you use an affiliate link or not.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n All photos: Vicki Weisfeld<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On a recent 10-day trip to south Georgia and Alabama, we covered a lot of ground. The trip had many profound highlights. These are the literary ones. Monroeville, Alabama, was the hometown of author Harper Lee (1926-2016) and the setting … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Pink-Suit-F-Scott-Fitzgerald.jpg?resize=272%2C371&ssl=1\")
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