Harper Lee and Her Only Published Novel

American Author of Classic Book To Kill a Mockingbird

Aug 14, 2009 Tel Asiado

Brief biography of American Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Harper Lee, and her solo published novel about justice and prejudice.

Harper Lee's single novel and only published work, To Kill a Mockingbird, has become a classic of American literature, a favorite of millions of people. To Kill a Mockingbird established its author as a leading American writer.

Profile of Harper Lee

Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, raised in Monroeville, Alabama, and grew up there in the 1930s during the Great Depression. After state schooling in Alabama, she went to law school, following the footsteps of her father, a local lawyer. The young Harper Lee, however, had been writing since she was 7. At age 29, she left law school and went to New York City to pursue her writing career.

While in New York, Lee supported herself by working for an airline company, taking reservations. She spent more than two years rewriting her novel after it had been accepted by a publisher. To Kill a Mockingbird was finally published in 1960 when Lee was 34. It was an immediate success.

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in a Maycomb county. Lee's account of childhood, its vivid recreation is compelling and profoundly captured in a small Southern town.

The story is told through the eyes of a young girl nicknamed Scout whose father is a lawyer in a small Alabama town. Her brother, Jem, and her grow up there, with their lawyer father, Atticus Finch. Along with the children, the readers experience the changing events from racial tension to open hatred, as Atticus Finch unsuccessfully defends a young black man, Tom Robinson, accused of raping a white woman. In the process, Finch and his family are threatened by racists.

Interestingly, Scout's friend Dill is supposed to have been inspired by Lee's childhood friend and neighbor, Truman Capote, while Lee is the model of a character in Capote's first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms.

To Kill a Mockingbird explores the themes of justice and prejudice, and social convictions that glide along the story. There is a gentle but subtle suggestion that a child's natural sense of justice can be damaged by society's racism.

Harper Lee After Mockingbird's Publication

In the early 1960s, Harper Lee published two articles, one in Vogue, "Love – In Other Words" and the other in McCalls, titled "Christmas to Me."

Harper Lee was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, in 1961. It was made into a film starring Gregory Peck a year later. Since then, she has received various awards and honors for her work, including honorary doctorates.

Harper Lee Quote

"The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is the court-room, be he any color of the rainbow; but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box." ~ Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Sources:

• Goring, Rosemary, Ed. Larousse Dictionary of Writers. New York: Larousse, 1994.
• Payne, Tom. The A-Z of Great Writers. London: Carlton, 1997.
• Uglow, Jennifer, Compiler & Editor, revised by Maggy Hendry. The Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography, 3rd Edition. London: Macmillan Publishers, 1999.

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Harper Lee, American Novelist and Classic Author

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird