Ten fictional characters based on actual people

Jeff Somers is the author of We Are Not Good People, the Avery Cates series, Lifers, and Chum. He has published over thirty short stories, including “Ringing the Changes,” which appeared in the Best American Mystery Stories 2006 anthology. One of his ten fictional characters based on actual people, as shared at the B&N Reads blog:

Dill Harris from To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

With the passing of Harper Lee this year, many readers discovered and re-discovered the joys of her remarkable 1960 novel . Berkeley Breathed even published a special Bloom County cartoon informing us that while everyone always thought Harper was the basis for Scout, he believed she was actually the basis for Boo Radley, the shy, disturbed, and ultimately heroic recluse living next door to the Finches. But Lee probably did see herself in Scout, because she blatantly based the character of Dill, Scout’s best friend and asserted future husband, on her own bestie, Truman Capote. To be fair, Capote could also have been the basis for Boo. Let’s just face it: we’re all Boo to some extent.

Read about another entry on the list.

To Kill a Mockingbird made Carol Wall's list of five books that changed her, John Bardinelli's list of five authors who became famous after publishing a single novel and never published another one, Ellie Irving's top ten list of quiet heroes and heroines, a list of five books that changed Richelle Mead, Robert Williams's top ten list of loners in fiction, Alyssa Bereznak's top ten list of literary heroes with weird names, Louise Doughty's top ten list of courtroom dramas, Hanna McGrath's top fifteen list of epic epigraphs, the Telegraph's list of ten great meals in literature, Nicole Hill's list of fourteen characters their creators should have spared, Isla Blair's six best books list, Lauren Passell's list of ten pairs of books made better when read together, Charlie Fletcher's top ten list of adventure classics, Sheila Bair's 6 favorite books list, Kathryn Erskine's top ten list of first person narratives, Julia Donaldson's six best books list, TIME magazine's top 10 list of books you were forced to read in school, John Mullan's list of ten of the best lawyers in literature, John Cusack's list of books that made a difference to him, Lisa Scottoline's top ten list of books about justice, and Luke Leitch's list of ten literary one-hit wonders. It is one of Sanjeev Bhaskar's six best books and one of Alexandra Styron's five best stories of fathers and daughters.

--Marshal Zeringue