Who is Harper Lee?

Harper Lee’s first and only novel to reach print was “To Kill a Mockingbird.” She started writing it in 1956 calling it “Go Set a Watchman,” and then later renamed “Atticus.” Lee finished the manuscript in 1959 as “To Kill a Mockingbird” and published it the next year. She was 34 at the time. Her book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and the movie adaptation won four movie awards including Best Actor awarded to Gregory Peck who acted as Atticus. She was said to be working on a second novel, but it was never published.

Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama to a father, who was a former newspaper editor and proprietor, state senator, and a practiced lawyer of Monroeville. She was the youngest of four and described as a tomboy. She had a childhood friend named Truman Capote who grew up to write articles in the magazine, The New Yorker, and the authored the book titled “In Cold Blood” to what Lee also contributed to (though the nonfiction book is only dedicated to her and does not specify any credit to due to her). After completing college, Lee went to New York to pursue a dream of writing. She worked as a ticket agent for two airlines until she was able to write full time in 1956, courtesy to the family of Michael Martin Brown. The product of this first effort at full time writing was "To Kill a Mockingbird."

References to Harper Lee:
http://kirjasto.sci.fi/harperle.htm
http://www.harperlee.com/bio.htm
http://www.biography.com/articles/Harper-Lee-937702