Harper Lee Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom

On Monday November 5, 2007 Harper Lee, author of classic American novel To Kill A Mockingbird was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This award is the highest award a US civilian can get and recognizes contributions in the arts, literature, science, and the cause of peace and freedom. At last count, over 30 million copies of the book have been sold and I suspect another 30 million pages have been written by high school kids as part of school work. Now usually the book is 100 times better than the movie, but in this case - the movie is pretty darn impressive. OK, not as good as the book - but Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and Brock Peters as Tom Robinson give you amazing performances. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won three. Check out To Kill A Mockingbird - it is as good as you remembered, maybe even better on the second or third viewing.