<Tr> <Th> Relatives </Th> <Td> Edgar (cousin) Joshua (cousin) Francis Hancock (nephew) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Nationality </Th> <Td> American </Td> </Tr> <P> Atticus Finch is a fictional character in author Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning novel of 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird . A preliminary version of the character also appears in the novel Go Set a Watchman, written in the mid 1950s but not published until 2015 . Atticus is a lawyer and resident of the fictional Maycomb County, Alabama, and the father of Jeremy "Jem" Finch and Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. Lee based the character on her own father, Amasa Coleman Lee, an Alabama lawyer, who, like Atticus, represented black defendants in a highly publicized criminal trial . Book Magazine's list of The 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900 names Finch as the seventh best fictional character of 20th - century literature . In 2003 the American Film Institute voted Atticus Finch, as portrayed in an Academy Award - winning performance by Gregory Peck in the 1962 film adaptation, as the greatest hero of all American cinema . </P> <P> Claudia Durst Johnson has commented about critiques of the novel, saying, "A greater volume of critical readings has been amassed by two legal scholars in law journals than by all the literary scholars in literary journals". Alice Petry remarked, "Atticus has become something of a folk hero in legal circles and is treated almost as if he were an actual person". Examples of Atticus Finch's impact on the legal profession are plentiful . Richard Matsch, the federal judge who presided over the Timothy McVeigh trial, counts Atticus as a major judicial influence . One law professor at the University of Notre Dame stated that the most influential textbook from which he taught was To Kill a Mockingbird, and an article in the Michigan Law Review asserts, "No real - life lawyer has done more for the self - image or public perception of the legal profession", before questioning whether "Atticus Finch is a paragon of honor or an especially slick hired gun ." </P>

What is atticus profession in to kill a mockingbird