A rare first edition of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, discovered in a donation box at an Oxfam bookshop in London, has been acquired by the British Library for its national collection.
A rare first edition of To Kill A Mockingbird has been acquired by the British Library
A rare first edition of To Kill A Mockingbird has been uncovered amongst a donation to Oxfam, the charity has revealed.
A copy of Harper Lee’s landmark 1960 work was found in a box of American books donated to Oxfam’s bookshop on Portobello Road, west London.
It has since been acquired by the British Library, where it will become part of the institution’s national collection.
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Shop manager Olivia Haysman-Walker, who identified the novel as a first US edition at Oxfam, said: “It could so easily have been missed.
“There were lots of books to work through in the donation, but we recognised To Kill A Mockingbird and thought it was worth taking a closer look.
“We realised quite quickly that we had something really special.
“The dust jacket showed its age, and although it was worn around the edges, the pages inside were in beautiful condition.
“It’s amazing to think that this book has passed through our Oxfam bookshop and into the national collection at the British Library.
“It really has been quite a journey, and it’s a lovely reminder, during Second Hand September, of the kind of treasures that can be hiding among the shelves and donations in our shops.”
Second Hand September is Oxfam’s annual campaign encouraging people to buy second-hand.
Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel follows lawyer Atticus Finch as he fights to defend Tom Robinson, a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman. Her story of racial injustice and childhood innocence, set in Alabama in 1934, has sold more than 40 million copies around the world and has been translated into 40 languages.
The American author, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, passed away in 2016 aged 89.
