A Good Book

As the saying goes, “Inside every Southerner there is a book.”

And as we learned this past week, maybe there are two books. Harper Lee who has shunned publicity and publishing since the 1960 publication of her classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, agreed to release what some are calling, Mockingbird II. Lee grew up in Monroeville, Ala. and used her childhood experiences and herself to tell the story.

Monticello’s most famous author and columnist for The Monticello News, Ted Dunagan, grew up in Coffeeville, Ala. about 50 miles down Alabama Hwy. 84 from Lee’s hometown. He also credits his book characters to his childhood. In fact the main character in his five books is named Ted.

Is there something in the water in Alabama that just makes its denizens take pen to paper?

Being born and raised in a small town with hardly any outside entertainment, children learn to entertain themselves and to tap into their imagination and creativity.

The big city offers children multiple opportunities, but small town kids such as Lee and Dunagan seem to flourish with creative writing. As author Malcolm Gladwell notes in his book, Outliers, children who are given too much structure and activities limit their ability to create and make their own decisions.

Before there was a Walt Disney World, there was a Walt Disney who grew up in an impoverished family in a small town. His imagination and natural ability to draw created the world that he wanted instead of the world he was living in.

Millions have enjoyed the world that Disney made where everyone is happy and there is never a bad day.

Is there a Harper Lee, a Ted Dunagan or a Walt Disney growing up in Monticello or Jasper County? Maybe, sure hope so.