Harper Lee 'loyal' to Capitol Book & News

Every Christmas, Harper Lee would walk into Capitol Book & News and sign hundreds of copies of "To Kill a Mockingbird," and to purchase books for her family.

She would let the Montgomery bookstore know in advance that she was coming – which she did for many years up until about eight years ago after a stroke made her physically unable to travel from her home in Monroeville – and Thomas Upchurch, a store owner, would order hundreds of copies of her Pulitzer-winning book and offer a private signing in a back room at the store. The East Fairview Avenue store closed in January, after serving the region for 65 years.

"We kind of inherited her as a customer," Upchurch said. "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. So she stopped signing books a couple of years before she got sick."

'Mockingbird' author Harper Lee dies, age 89

"To Kill a Mockingbird" was an instant and ongoing hit, published in 1960, 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 has been wrongly accused of raping a white woman, and Scout's father, the resolute lawyer Atticus Finch, defends 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 survey in 1991 on books that have affected people's lives, "To Kill a Mockingbird" was second only to the Bible.

"Every year, she was listed as the best seller at the bookstore," Upchurch said. "It was the number one 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. 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."

"To Kill a Mockingbird" was always in stock at Capitol Book & News.

"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.

Asked which books she purchased when she made visits to Capitol Book & News, Upchurch answered: "She was an extremely private person. And my policy is that I don't tell anybody what anybody buys at the bookstore. She did buy for her family. We saw her once a year for many years. She was gregarious and friendly and outgoing."

There wasn't one generation over another that Upchurch saw drawn to "To Kill a Mockingbird."

"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. As you get older, things change. And there's something that just drew people back to that book."

Upchurch said Lee was loyal to the store. When she came to sign books and shop, the book signings were never a public affair. He said that while her death "is sad ... the world still has the book.

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