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By close reference to specific incidents in the first eleven chapters, how true you think this statement is?

Dill, Jem, and Scout are obsessed with the idea of Boo Radley almost from the very beginning of the book.  As soon as Dill arrives on the scene, they spend their summers in games and challenges that are all centered around Boo and his house.  They start when Dill dares Jem to touch the Radley house, which he does.  As he does, there is a flick of the curtain, so someone saw him do it, supposedly Boo.  Then, Scout starts finding things in the oak in front of the Radley house; Boo is leaving gifts, tokens of friendship, for the kids (until Mr. Radley fills the tree with cement, that is).  Later, when Scout is launched into Boo's yard from her tire-riding adventure, she says that she heard someone laughing from the house; again, Boo is there.  The kids even take to "playing" Boo Radley as a form of pretend.  When they go to peek in Boo's window and Jem loses his pants, it is hinted that Boo takes the pants, stitches them up, and leaves them for Jem.  Then when Miss Maudie's fire happens, Scout is covered in a blanket against the cold, and Atticus hints that it is Boo that put it there.  

All of these events are centered aroud Boo, making him a major-if physically absent-character in the first part of the book. 

I have always considered Boo's absence as very similiar to how little children do not actually see the "boogeyman," but how desperately they believe in this character.  Not seeing Boo allows the Harper Lee to build suspense while at the same time giving her room to build upon one of her major themes in the novel: how appearances and first impressions are ultimately inaccurate. Also, the children do not see Boo at the beginning because they are not mature enough to understand and respect Boo's plight.  

In reply to #1:

Boo's presence certainly pervades the beginning of the novel. I think an interesting question would be why this is so. Through Boo as a focal point, much is accomplished in the literary sense. He serves as the means to take us into the children's "secret" world, what they say and do when adults aren't looking and listening. The preoccupation with Boo establishs some Maycomb history, reveals a lot of the social customs and attitudes in the town, and helps develop the characters of Atticus and Maudie, specifically, in showing how they deal with Jem and Scout in reference to Boo.

Boo's presence begins the novel, then it parallels Tom Robinson's story as it is introduced and developed. The beauty of the novel's conclusion, in a structural sense, is how seamlessly Harper Lee merges her two storylines in such a poignant and powerful way to accomplish her major theme. Perfect.