Nelle Harper Lee (April 28, 1926 – February 19, 2016), better known by her pen name Harper Lee, was an American novelist widely known for To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960. Immediately successful, it won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. Though Lee had only published this single book, in 2007 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature. Additionally, Lee received numerous honorary degrees, though she declined to speak on those occasions. She was also known for assisting her close friend Truman Capote in his research for the book In Cold Blood (1966). Capote was the basis for the character Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird.
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Harper Lee biography
Harper Lee, known as Nelle, was born in the Alabama town of Monroeville on April 28, 1926, the youngest of four children of Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee. Her father, a former newspaper editor and proprietor, was a lawyer who served in the state legislature from 1926 to 1938. As a child, Lee was a tomboy and a precocious reader, and enjoyed the friendship of her schoolmate and neighbor, the young Truman Capote.
After graduating from high school in Monroeville,[2] Lee enrolled at the all-female Huntingdon College in Montgomery (1944–45), and then pursued a law degree at the University of Alabama (1945–50), pledging the Chi Omega sorority. While there, she wrote for several student publications and spent a year as editor of the campus humor magazine, Ramma-Jamma. Though she did not complete the law degree, she studied for a summer in Oxford, England, before moving to New York in 1950, where she worked as a reservation clerk with Eastern Air Lines and BOAC.
Lee continued as a reservation clerk until the late 50s, when she devoted herself to writing. She lived a frugal life, traveling between her cold-water-only apartment in New York to her family home in Alabama to care for her father.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Having written several long stories, Harper Lee located an agent in November 1956. The following month at the East 50th townhouse of her friends Michael Brown and Joy Williams Brown, she received a gift of a year's wages with a note: "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas." Within a year, she had a first draft. Working with J. B. Lippincott & Co. editor Tay Hohoff, she completed To Kill a Mockingbird in the summer of 1959. Published July 11, 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate bestseller and won great critical acclaim, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. It remains a bestseller with more than 30 million copies in print. In 1999, it was voted "Best Novel of the Century" in a poll by the Library Journal.
Many details of To Kill a Mockingbird are apparently autobiographical. Like Lee, the tomboy Scout is the daughter of a respected small-town Alabama attorney. The plot involves a legal case, the workings of which would have been familiar to Lee, who studied law. Scout's friend Dill is supposed to have been inspired by Lee's childhood friend and neighbor, Truman Capote, while Lee is the model for a character in Capote's first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms.
Harper Lee has downplayed autobiographical parallels. Yet Truman Capote, mentioning the character Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird, described details he considered biographical: "In my original version of Other Voices, Other Rooms I had that same man living in the house that used to leave things in the trees, and then I took that out. He was a real man, and he lived just down the road from us. We used to go and get those things out of the trees. Everything she wrote about it is absolutely true. But you see, I take the same thing and transfer it into some Gothic dream, done in an entirely different way."
After To Kill a Mockingbird
After completing To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee accompanied Capote to Holcomb, Kansas, to assist him in researching what they thought would be an article on a small town's response to the murder of a farmer and his family. Capote expanded the material into his best-selling book, In Cold Blood (1966).
Since publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee has granted almost no requests for interviews or public appearances, and with the exception of a few short essays, has published no further writings. She did work on a second novel--The Long Goodbye--eventually filing it away unfinished.[6] During the mid-1980s, she began a book of nonfiction about an Alabama serial murderer, but also put it aside when she was not satisfied.[6] Her withdrawal from public life prompted unfounded speculation that new publications were in the works. Similar speculation followed the American writers J. D. Salinger and Ralph Ellison.
Lee said of the 1962 Academy Award–winning screenplay adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird by Horton Foote: "I think it is one of the best translations of a book to film ever made". She also became a friend of Gregory Peck, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Atticus Finch, the father of the novel's narrator, Scout. She remains close to the actor's family. Peck's grandson, Harper Peck Voll, is named after her.
In June 1966, Lee was one of two persons named by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the National Council on the Arts.
When Lee attended the 1983 Alabama History and Heritage Festival in Eufaula, Alabama, she presented the essay "Romance and High Adventure."
Lee has been known to split time between an apartment in New York and her sister's home in Monroeville. She has accepted honorary degrees but has declined to make speeches. In March 2005, she arrived in Philadelphia — her first trip to the city since signing with publisher Lippincott in 1960 — to receive the inaugural ATTY Award for positive depictions of attorneys in the arts from the Spector Gadon & Rosen Foundation. At the urging of Peck's widow Veronique, Lee traveled by train from Monroeville to Los Angeles in 2005 to accept the Los Angeles Public Library Literary Award. She has also attended luncheons for students who have written essays based on her work, held annually at the University of Alabama. On May 21, 2006, she accepted an honorary degree from the University of Notre Dame. To honor her, the graduating seniors were given copies of Mockingbird before the ceremony and held them up when she received her degree.
In a letter published in Oprah Winfrey's magazine O (May 2006), Lee wrote about her love of books as a child and her dedication to the written word: "Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books."
While attending an August 20, 2007 ceremony inducting four members into the Alabama Academy of Honor, Lee responded to an invitation to address the audience with "Well, it's better to be silent than to be a fool."
Go Set a Watchman
Go Set a Watchman was initially written in the mid-1950s and famously published in 2015, more than half a century after the release of her Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel provides a compelling and controversial glimpse into the characters and setting of Maycomb, Alabama, revisiting the beloved characters from "To Kill a Mockingbird" in a different stage of their lives. The story centers around Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, who returns to her hometown of Maycomb from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus Finch, and to grapple with her own identity and values. Set in the mid-1950s, against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, the novel explores themes of racial tension, family dynamics, and the struggle for personal integrity.
The title, Go Set a Watchman, is taken from the biblical Book of Isaiah and alludes to the protagonist's journey of self-discovery and moral awakening. As Jean Louise confronts the realities of her hometown, she is forced to confront uncomfortable truths about her family, her community, and herself. One of the most significant elements of Go Set a Watchman is its portrayal of Atticus Finch, who in To Kill a Mockingbird is revered as a paragon of moral virtue and racial justice. In "Go Set a Watchman," however, Atticus is depicted as more complex and fallible, grappling with his own prejudices and beliefs. This portrayal sparked intense debate and controversy among readers and critics alike.
While Go Set a Watchman received mixed reviews upon its publication, with some praising its nuanced exploration of character and themes, and others questioning its place in the literary canon, it remains a thought-provoking companion piece to To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel offers readers a deeper understanding of Harper Lee's vision and the evolution of her characters, while also raising important questions about morality, identity, and the legacy of the American South. Despite the controversy surrounding its publication, Go Set a Watchman stands as a testament to Harper Lee's enduring impact on literature and her ability to provoke thought and discussion with her storytelling. Whether seen as a standalone work or as a companion to To Kill a Mockingbird, the novel continues to spark dialogue and reflection among readers, ensuring its place in the literary landscape for years to come.
Harper Lee quotes
Harper Lee, though famously private, has left behind a wealth of insightful and memorable quotes through her writing and interviews. The following are some notable quotes attributed to her.
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."
"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."
"Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird."
"People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for."
"Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."
"Atticus, he was real nice." "Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them."
"You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don't you let 'em get your goat. Try fightin' with your head for a change."
"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."
These quotes encapsulate themes of empathy, morality, courage, and the complexities of human nature that are central to Harper Lee's writing and continue to resonate with readers worldwide.
Death
Lee died in her sleep on the morning of February 19, 2016, aged 89.
Portrayals
Harper Lee was portrayed by Catherine Keener in the film Capote (2005), by Sandra Bullock in the film Infamous (2006), and by Tracey Hoyt in the TV movie Scandalous Me: The Jacqueline Susann Story (1998). In the adaptation of Capote's Other Voices, Other Rooms (1995), the character of Idabell Thompkins, who was inspired by Truman Capote's memories of Harper Lee as a child, was played by Aubrey Dollar.
Source and additional information: Harper Lee