One was a rebellious debutante, the other a far from flashy airline reservations clerk. Yet the first would produce “the most popular novel ever written,” Gone With the Wind, the second To Kill A Mockingbird, a literary gem that is still required reading in schools today. Tonight, PBS’ American Masters focuses on these two remarkable women in back-to-back documentaries. The series finds a partial model for Rhett Butler in Mitchell’s abusive first husband and covers charges of racism in her book, as well as the author’s later contributions to African-American institutions. Lee, we learn, shared a typewriter with the boy next door—Truman Capote—and grew up in a household that “espoused values ahead of its time” (her own father provided the template for hero Atticus Finch). Mitchell died at age 48 after being hit by a speeding car while crossing the street. Lee, now 85, resists the idea that she became a recluse:  Tired of public attention, she simply refuses to do interviews because, as she told Oprah Winfrey, “I’m really Boo.”—Susan Toepfer

Margaret Mitchell: American Rebel, April 2, 9 PM, PBS

Harper Lee: Hey, Boo, April 2, 10 PM PBS