Nelle Harper Lee was born the youngest of four on April 28, 1926 in Moneroeville Alabama to mother Amasa Coleman Lee and her father Frances Cunningham Finch Lee who was a lawyer, and a true inspiration to Lee’s character Atticus in the book To Kill A Mockingbird. When she was young, she was an avid reader, a tomboy, and had a close friendship with Truman Capote, who was the man behind Dill in her novel. Harper was only five when her story basis first appeared to her. In Monroeville, trials regarding two white women being raped by black men was occurring. She saw that through her life experiences that it would be a way to show not only how her town was during the time period, but how most of the South itself was at the time.
Haper Lee first studied at Huntington College, before going to study law at the University of Alabama. She then took a year abroad to study at Oxford University in England. When she got back, she didn’t go into law, instead she was a reservation clerk in NY. After that, she decided to devote herself to writing instead. She worked on her book, editing and reviewing her novel for about two years. She also worked as an assisant for her childhood friend in researching for another book that he was working on. Her book To Kill A Mockingbird was then published in 1960. In 1961 her book won the Pulitzer Prize, and sold over 15 million copies before being made into a movie in 1962.
Since then Harper Lee has become a part of the National Council of the Arts, and gotten many honoarary doctrates. Harper Lee continues to live in New York and Alabama, living a more reclusive life than most, only publishing a few more short stories and accepting very few interviews after To Kill A Mockingbird was published.
