How do you write a biography of a fictional character?

Joseph Crispino will be here to talk about his new book, Atticus Finch, The Biography,

Harper Lee, her father, and the making of an American icon.

What role does hunting play in American culture?

Philip Drey will join us to talk about his book, Fair Chase, The Epic Story of Hunting in America.

Plus, we'll talk about what we and the water world are reading.

This is the Book Review Podcast for The New York Times. I'm Pamela Paul.

Joining us now is Joseph Crispino. He is the author of a new book called Atticus Finch, The Biography.

Harper Lee, her father, and the making of an American icon. He is a professor of history at

Emery University, but he joins us right now from Houston. Joe, thanks for being here.

Thanks so much for having me.

So your day job, as it were, is a professor of history at Emery University.

You've written a number of previous books, including Strom Thurman's America,

and in search of another country, Mississippi, and the conservative counter-revolution.

Why a book about Atticus Finch? A book about literature?

That's right. I'm a political historian by training.

And most of my work has been about the history of the South and national politics in the 20th

century. As the South is transitioning from Jim Crow society to the modern South,

so roughly from the 1930s through the turn of the 21st century.

But when you think about that history, there is one kind of cultural production that

looms so large that continues to be taught and read and to influence our understanding

about the history of the Jim Crow South and about the history of American politics in the 20th

...