I don’t post much on Pigtails anymore, but in light of the fact that we lost author Harper Lee yesterday, I felt compelled to make a post on To Kill a Mockingbird, which has inspired not only the wonderful 1962 film but many artists who’ve interpreted the work visually. Here are some of the best I have encountered.

First, let’s look at just a few of the many lovely book cover designs that have been created over the years since the book’s initial publication. Some of these are actually in use; others are just practice designs done by assorted artists.

Tumblr: Aky-Aky

Kristiina Seppä (official site)

Inkymole (official site)

Hugh Illustration (official site)

DeviantArt: TaraGraphic

And here is an assortment of illustrations inspired by the book and/or the movie:

DeviantArt: Teaessare

Etsy: Jeremy Osborne

Kelley McMorris Illustration (official site)

DeviantArt: Knighthead

And now, some art and photography related to the film, which of course starred Mary Badham as Jean-Louise “Scout” Finch, the book’s narrator. Badham was nine when she was cast as Scout, and though it was her first acting gig, she proved to be a natural, earning an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress at age ten, the youngest person ever to get such a nomination up until that point and for a decade after (she would eventually be supplanted by Tatum O’Neal, who actually won Best Supporting Actress in 1973 for her role in Paper Moon; O’Neal remains the youngest person ever to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, or anything else).

Although not the prettiest child, there is something undeniably charming and compelling about little Mary Badham that renders her absolutely disarming and lovable. Unfortunately, she didn’t do much else as a child actress: a couple of TV guest spots, one on Dr. Kildare playing a victim of child abuse at the hands of her mother, and one in The Twilight Zone episode “The Bewitchin’ Pool” playing a pretty obvious Scout Finch analogue named Sport Sharewood, who escapes (along with her brother) from her bickering, negligent parents into a magical world by means of the titular pool. “The Bewitchin’ Pool” is also notable for being the very last episode of the original Twilight Zone series. After a couple of teen roles in the 1966 films This Property Is Condemned and Let’s Kill Uncle, Badham retired from acting for nearly forty years, only coming out of retirement at the urging of Cameron Watson, who would settle for no one else to play the part of Mrs. Nutbush in his film Our Very Own.

I particularly love the pensive pose Badham affects in the image on the right.

You can really see her freckles in this next shot.

Badham with her charm on full display.

You can just tell that Badham was eating up all of the attention and fame she received as a result of being in the film. It must’ve been like a dream come true for this rather plain girl from Alabama. Interestingly, her brother John Badham, thirteen years her senior, would later become a director famous for such films as Saturday Night Fever, WarGames and Short Circuit, among others.

Badham obviously had an easygoing and affectionate relationship with the film’s director Robert Mulligan. In later years she would recount a story about on-set shenanigans involving Mulligan, who was apparently a chain smoker and rarely to be seen without a cigarette. It seems that Phillip Alford, who played Scout’s brother Jem, used to secretly dip the tips of Mulligan’s smokes in water so that they wouldn’t light. When Mulligan finally caught on, he set up Alford, Badham and the other main child actor in the film, John Megna (Dill) by arranging for them to be at particular spot where they met with a bucket full of water. These days that’s something that would make it into the DVD/Blu-Ray extras.

Here are some posters for the film:

A couple of French posters for the film:

A poster for a play production of To Kill a Mockingbird:

And finally, a few stills from the film itself: