The hard-won success of "The Help"

1. Listen Kathryn Stockett reads from 'Too Little, Too Late,' at the end of 'The Help'

   2min 9sec

2. Listen Kathryn Stockett tells Euan Kerr about the origins of 'The Help'

   9min 47sec

3. Listen Kathryn Stockett talks about reactions to 'The Help'

   9min 19sec

4. Listen Kathryn Stockett scores success with her novel 'The Help'

   3min 43sec

Kathryn Stockett's novel "The Help" was the surprise literary success of 2009.

Set in segregationist Mississippi in the 1960s, it's a story about African American maids and their complicated relationships with their white employers.

It's told from the viewpoints of two maids and a young, white woman who secretly write a book about the maids lives.

Some 60 agents rejected Stockett's manuscript, but eventually she found a publisher. "The Help" has been on the New York Times bestseller list for 56 weeks so far.

Stockett is in the Twin Cities for a reading tonight. She told Euan Kerr she drew the three main characters from her own life growing up in Jackson, Mississippi.