--- title: Harper Lee and 'To Kill a Mockingbird': Read TIME's Original Review description: TIME's first review of "To Kill a Mockingbird" appeared in the Aug. 1, 1960, issue of the magazine canonical: https://time.com/3693680/to-kill-a-mockingbird-review/ author: Dan Kedmey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-03T16:27:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:06:18.576Z article:section: History og:title: Read TIME's Original Review of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' og:description: TIME's first review of "To Kill a Mockingbird" appeared in the Aug. 1, 1960, issue of the magazine og:url: https://time.com/3693680/to-kill-a-mockingbird-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt848f47e51268cbcd/69877d52524fc045e1dec45f/77695641.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 77695641 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read TIME's Original Review of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' twitter:description: TIME's first review of "To Kill a Mockingbird" appeared in the Aug. 1, 1960, issue of the magazine twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt848f47e51268cbcd/69877d52524fc045e1dec45f/77695641.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read TIME's Original Review of _To Kill a Mockingbird_  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Feb 3, 2015 4:27 PM UTC  Pulitzer Prize winner and 'To Kill A Mockingbird' author Harper Lee smiles before receiving the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom in the East Room of the White House November 5, 2007 in Washington, DC. Pulitzer Prize winner and 'To Kill A Mockingbird' author Harper Lee smiles before receiving the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom in the East Room of the White House November 5, 2007 in Washington, DC.Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Feb 3, 2015 4:27 PM UTC More than half a century has passed since TIME reviewed Harper Lee’s first and only novel, _To Kill a Mockingbird —_ but this summer TIME may have a second opportunity to review this celebrated and reclusive author’s work, when the publishing house Harper releases her recently discovered second novel, _Go Set a Watchman_. The publisher [announced](http://time.com/3693660/tkam-harper-lee-novel/) on Tuesday that the novel — which was actually written before _Mockingbird_ — will be available on July 14. TIME’s first review of _To Kill a Mockingbird_ appeared in an Aug. 1, 1960 edition of the magazine, under the headline, “About Life & Little Girls.” While the reviewer doesn’t hold back on the praise, perhaps no one at the time could have anticipated the sensation the book would become. Here is TIME’s original review, in full: --- > “” --- **_See the page as it originally appeared,_** [**_here in the TIME Vault_**](http://time.com/vault/issue/1960-08-01/page/72/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3693680/to-kill-a-mockingbird-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3693680/to-kill-a-mockingbird-review/"},"headline":"Read TIME's Original Review of To Kill a Mockingbird","datePublished":"2015-02-03T16:27:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:06:18.576Z","description":"'Author Lee, 34, an Alabaman, has written her first novel with all of the tactile brilliance and none of the preciosity generally supposed to be standard swamp-warfare issue for Southern writers.'","url":"https://time.com/3693680/to-kill-a-mockingbird-review/","keywords":["Books","To Kill a Mockingbird","Harper Lee"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt848f47e51268cbcd/69877d52524fc045e1dec45f/77695641.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt848f47e51268cbcd/69877d52524fc045e1dec45f/77695641.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"77695641","caption":"Pulitzer Prize winner and 'To Kill A Mockingbird' author Harper Lee smiles before receiving the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom in the East Room of the White House November 5, 2007 in Washington, DC.","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3693680/to-kill-a-mockingbird-review/","name":"Read TIME's Original Review of To Kill a Mockingbird"}}]}] ```