Store was scene of yearly Harper Lee book signings

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Around Christmas until about eight years ago, Harper Lee would walk into Capitol Book & News, sign hundreds of copies of her book, To Kill a Mockingbird, and purchase presents for her family.

She would let the bookstore know in advance that she was coming, so Thomas Upchurch, one of the store's owners, would order hundreds of copies of her Pulitzer-winning book and offer a private signing in a back room at the store. The only reason she stopped what had become a tradition was a stroke that left her unable to travel the 100 miles from her home in Monroeville, Ala.

"We kind of inherited her as a customer," said Upchurch, whose store closed in January after 65 years in business. "And then we became friends with her.

"When she came to discover that people were putting her signed copies on eBay, she didn't like it," he said. "So she stopped signing books a couple of years before she got sick."

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To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, was an instant and ongoing hit as the civil-rights movement was accelerating. It's the story of a girl nicknamed Scout growing up in a Depression-era Southern town.

A black man was wrongly accused of raping a white woman, and Scout's father, the resolute lawyer Atticus Finch, defended him despite threats and the scorn of many.

By 2015, sales for the book topped 40 million copies. When the Library of Congress did a 1991 survey on books that have affected people's lives, To Kill a Mockingbird was second only to the Bible.

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"Every year, she was listed as the best seller at the bookstore," Upchurch said. "It was the No. 1 favorite novel of all time in nearly every poll you would read about American literature. People loved her books.

"They loved the story ... the book. They loved the movie," he said. "It was something that resonated with people. It always fascinated me that in 1960, when that book came out, that people in the South would be drawn to it."

At Capitol Book & News, To Kill a Mockingbird was always in stock.

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"She was an unknown author when it came out. But sales wise, I don't know what was the spark that turned it into the phenomena that it did," Upchurch said.

Upchurch wouldn't say what books Lee bought during her visits.

"She was an extremely private person, and my policy is that I don't tell anybody what anybody buys at the bookstore," he said. "She did buy for her family. We saw her once a year for many years. She was gregarious and friendly and outgoing."

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Upchurch didn't see one generation drawn more to To Kill a Mockingbird than another.

"There was something about it that appealed to everybody," he said. "All of them are going to be exposed to it. As you get older, and read the book again, you find things that are interesting."

Lee was loyal to the store, Upchurch said. When she came to sign books and shop, the book signings were never a public affair.

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He was saddened by her death but said the world still has her book.

"Her legacy will always be the one book," Upchurch said. "Nothing is going to tarnish that."

Follow Kym Klass on Twitter: @kymklass