Background for To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee Bio Written by Harper Lee

Harper Lee Born in Monroeville, Alabama, April 28, 1926, Nelle Harper Lee was the youngest of three children. Lee’s father and older sister both practiced law in much the same way that Atticus practices law Her family is related to Confederate General Robert E. Lee, a man especially noted for his devotion to honor

Father: Amsa Coleman-former newspaper editor and proprietor; was a lawyer-served on state legislature (1926-38). Mother: Frances Cunningham Finch Lee, the youngest daughter of 3 children. Note: Lee’s mother’s names were all character names in the novel.

Lee received her early education in the Monroeville public schools Attended Huntingdon College (1944-45) an all female college. She later attended University of Alabama (1945-1949) to study law: she left after a year to go to Oxford University in England

Lee failed to complete her degree She moved to New York. She worked as a reservation clerk, then devoted her life to writing. Worked in Kansas as research assistant for Truman Capote’s novel In Cold Blood. Capote, a childhood friend, remained close. Dill, a character in TKAM, is based on Capote Her experience and knowledge of law aided her in her writing career

In 1949, the 23 yr old Lee arrived in New York City. In 1956, Friends gave Lee an impressive Christmas gift – to support her for a year so that she could write full time. She quit her job and devoted herself to her craft.

Lee was part of the generation of writers that emerged after WWII. Wrote several essays and 3 short stories. Expanded one story into a novel-TKAM TKAM on best seller lists for over 80 weeks TKAM won the Pulitzer Prize (1961) and the Alabama Library Association Award. Lee had no desire to write a sequel in spite of her success.

Lee published TKAM in 1960 – her first and only novel-after a 2 yr period of revising and rewriting. TKAM was highly popular, selling more than 15 million copies

Why didn’t she write again? Lee never wrote another novel, although she planned to write a series of them in which she would somehow preserve what is beautiful about small- town, middle-class, Southern life. She gave one interview on the subject in 1964 to Roy Newquist

In his February 5, 2006 article, “Mockingbird Author Steps Out of Shadows,”The Observer’s Paul Harris stated: “The instant success terrified Lee. In one of her few detailed interviews, given in 1964 to author Roy Newquist, she offered an insight into the impact of instant fame, for someone who had been seen as a sidekick to the more glamorous Capote. 'I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement ... I hoped for a little but I got rather a whole lot and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected,' she said.”

In composing the novel Lee delved into her own experiences as a child in Monroeville, Lee intended that the book impart the sense of any small town in the Deep South, as well as the universal characteristics of human beings. The book was made into a successful movie in 1962, starring Gregory Peck as Atticus.

President Johnson named Lee to the National Council of Arts in June 1966. She has received various awards and accolades Lee lived between New York City and Monroeville, Alabama-but prefers a relatively private existence. In Monroeville, Lee lived with her older sister, Alice, a lawyer who the author called “Atticus in a skirt.”

Maycomb County, where her novel is set, closely resembles the place where Lee was born and spent most of her life. She insists that her novel is not autobiographical, even though her father was a lawyer and was the inspiration for the character of Atticus Finch.

Many aspects of TKAM are autobiographical Many aspects of TKAM are autobiographical. Monroeville served as the model for Maycomb, and Lee was dubbed "Queen of the Tomboys" by at least one friend; Lee gave all three of her mother's names to various characters in the novel. There is at least anecdotal evidence that Boo Radley was based on an actual neighbor. Finally, Lee has stated that Atticus Finch was based largely on her own father.

In 2007, President George W. Bush presented Lee with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her outstanding contribution to America’s literary tradition

Go Set a Watchman was published in 2015. It was submitted to a publisher in 1957 but the book wasn’t accepted; Lee’s editor asked her to revise the story making the main character, Scout, a child. Go Set a Watchman was thought to be lost until it was discovered by Lee’s lawyer in a safe deposit box. It was written before TKAM.

Go Set a Watchman portrays the later years of the Finch family. The book features Mockingbird’s Scout as a 26 year old on her way back to Maycomb from New York City. In Watchman, Scout’s father, Atticus, the upstanding moral conscience in TKAM, is portrayed as a racist with bigoted views and ties to the Ku Klux Klan.

Harper Lee died in her sleep on February 19, 2016, in Monroeville, Alabama at the age of 89.