Author's hometown to create a major tourist attraction for fans

Harper Lee’s hometown of Monroeville wants to create a major tourist attraction for fans of the To Kill a Mockingbird author.

The attraction, which is backed by a coalition of local business people led by the late author’s lawyer Tonja Carter, is expected to open in March, according to reports in the Alabama press. Guardian UK reported.

The creation of the Harper Lee Trail is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of fans of the reclusive novelist who died earlier this year. Guardian UK added.

Peter Black, a board member of the Mockingbird Company, a not-for-profit company set up shortly before the author’s death, told AL.com:

“With Ms Lee’s passing in February we’ve been working with leaders in Monroeville on how do we honour Ms Lee, and our vision is, with some time, how do we create a Harper Lee Trail?”

Opposing the move, critic Sarah Churchwell, says the plans risk something “far more pernicious than the commercialisation of Lee’s legacy”.

"The leaders of this project will need to be very careful that they don’t end up just creating a Disneyland for racists.”

Aside for creating a tourist attraction and building some of the houses in the story, the Harper Lee Trail also plans to renovate the last house where the award-winning reclusive writer lived with her sister Alice.

Black told the Guardian UK: “The project is in the early conceptual stage. No details right now.”

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