Introduction
When one thinks of classic literature, the book To Kill a Mockingbird often comes to mind. Published in 1960, the novel gained instant popularity and eventually won the Pulitzer Prize. It was made into an Oscar-winning film starring Gregory Peck and Mary Badham and is now required reading in schools across the United States. Despite its notoriety, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird still remains a mystery to many people. Here's a look at the life of Nelle Harper E. Lee, or just Haper Lee as she is known around the world.
Background
Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama on April 28, 1926 to Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee. Much like the infamous Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee's father was a lawyer who eventually served in the Alabama General Assembly. And like Scout, another character from the novel, Lee has said she was a tomboy who loved to read.
Lee graduated from Monroe County High School in 1944 and went on to the all girls school, Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama. Eventually, she transferred to the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, where she studied law and writing. She was also the editor of the school magazine, The Rammer Jammer, and wrote for the college's newspaper. After spending a year studying at Oxford University in England, Lee decided to return to the United States, drop out or college and move to New York City to pursue a writing career.
Lee spent the 1950's working as an airline ticket clerk for Eastern Air Lines and British Overseas Airways. Though she struggled with her professional life, her personal life was rich after reuniting with childhood friend Truman Capote. She even traveled to Kansas to work as Capote's research assistant while he wrote his own infamous novel, In Cold Blood.
Eventually, after writing a number of stories, she was able to land a literary agent, and within a year, the first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird was written.
Writing
After working with an editor from J. B. Lippincott & Co., To Kill a Mockingbird was completed in the summer of 1959. By the summer of 1960, it was published and available for sale. The book became a bestseller almost instantly and in 1961, it won a Pulitzer Prize. As of 2011, it has over 30 million copies in print and continues to win awards.
The book takes place in a small town in Alabama, in the 1930s and takes a close look at race relations during that time. A well-resepcted lawyer defends a black man who is accused of raping a white girl. The story is told by Scout, the lawyer's young daughter. Though Lee has denied some of it, many believe part of the novel are autobiographical.
After writing the book, Lee disappeared from public life. She has started other novels, but she did not finish them. She has been quoted as saying she did not enjoy the fame or pressure that came along with being a best-selling author.
Tips and comments
While Lee rarely makes public appearances, she did appear in Washington, DC in 2007 to accpet the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush. As of 2011, a close friend of the author's says she is living in an assisted-living facility where she is in a wheelchair and nearly blind and deaf.
