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Classic Authors: Harper Lee

© Susan Jensen

Nelle Harper Lee published only one book, but that novel gave her a respectable place in the annals of American literature. To Kill A Mockingbird(1960) won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and earned Miss Lee numerous other awards and honors. Surprisingly, this skilled writer has published almost nothing since the publication of her famous book. In fact, most people are surprised to hear that she is still living. She guards her privacy intensely, refusing to be interviewed or placed in the spotlight.

Miss Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama. She became the youngest of four children born to Frances Finch and Amasa Coleman Lee. Her father, Amasa Coleman (A.C.), practiced law in Monroeville. He served in the state legislator for over a decade, and edited The Monroe Journal from 1929 to 1947. Those who knew him called him great and noble. When he died in 1962, the J.B. Lipincott Company donated 300 books to Monroeville's city library in his memory. Little is known about Amasa Lee, except that she died in 1951, while Miss Lee was in her mid-twenties.

During the 1940s, Miss Lee studied at several colleges. She attended Huntington College from 1944-45, then studied law at the University of Alabama for four years. She also spent a year at Oxford University. For much of the next decade, she worked as a reservation clerk with Eastern Air Lines in New York.

Miss Lee gave up the job in New York in order to write. She divided her time between writing in New York, and tending to her ill father in Monroeville. In 1957, she submitted a manuscript to the J.B. Lipincott Company. The editors told her that her novel was simply a handful of short stories strung together. She spent the next two and a half years re-writing the book. She completed the novel, which bore the title To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The book told the story of a white lawyer, Atticus Finch, who decides to defend a black man, throwing his small town into a whirl of racism and hate. The novel has been incredibly successful ever since it was written.

In 1961, Miss Lee published two articles: "Love–In Other Words" (Vogue) and "Christmas to Me"(McCalls). Several years later, she published another article, "When Children Discover America."

She received many honors and awards for her work. In June of 1966, she was 1 of 2 people appointed to the National Council of the Arts. She has also received several honorary doctorates, perhaps four.

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