In HOB’s upcoming column for SLAW we suggest that legal publishers raise the profile of the industry through this sort of approach. It’s great to see the University of Alabama’s new Harper Lee Award which will honor legal fiction. It’s a big shame that none of the legal publishers have decided to get involved
Karen Sloan at Law.com reports
Original Article here
If HOB we’re in charge at any of the major legal publishing companies the opportunity to get the company’s name tied in with Harper Lee would be more than a priority.. but then again maybe it’s a case of — "oh that movie.. who was in it Gregory Peck". Rather than .. here is one of the giant pieces of 20th century American fiction: how do we get involved?
It’s been 50 years since the publication of Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, a book credited with inspiring several generations of lawyers.
The University of Alabama School of Law is marking the anniversary with a new legal fiction award named for the author. The school plans to give out The Harper Lee Prize for Legal Literature each year to the author of a fiction book that "best exemplifies the role of lawyers in society and lawyers’ power to effect change."
Aaron Latham, communications director at the law school, said he doesn’t know of any other literary prizes given specifically to works of legal fiction. There are several established awards for works of legal history and legal biography, however.
The school is still developing the criteria for the award, which will be officially announced during a Sept. 21 ceremony with Attorney General Eric Holder serving as keynote speaker, but it plans to make a broad swath of fiction with legal themes eligible.
"It could be something like [John Grisham’s] The Firm, but we don’t want it to be limited what people think of as ‘legal fiction,’ " Latham said.
The inaugural prize will be awarded in 2011 to a book published this year, he said.
Lee, who grew up in Monroeville, Ala., attended the University of Alabama Law School during the 1940s before dropping out to pursue her writing. She published Mockingbird in 1960 and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007.
Lee has appeared at few public events since Mockingbird came out and has not published any other books, although she helped childhood friend Truman Capote research his true-crime book In Cold Blood. Lee has been invited to the ceremony, Latham said.
Mockingbird deals with themes of racial injustice, and lawyer Atticus Finch serves as the moral compass of the story.
"We conceived of this award with the idea of bringing a new sense of relevance to the values and core lessons of To Kill a Mockingbird, Latham said. "Those values are fighting for justice, and differentiating right from wrong. Circumstances will change over time, but those values remain."
