The novel also inspired a generation of lawyers with its portrayal of the gentle, wise Atticus Finch, who defends a black man, Tom Robinson, falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. Meanwhile, the Finches' strange neighbor, Boo Radley, who strikes fear in Scout's and Jem's hearts, turns out not to be the monster the children expect him to be.
Though Lee denied that the novel was autobiographical, many parallels exist between "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Lee's own childhood. Her father was also a lawyer who owned the town newspaper.
Comparisons have been made between Lee and Scout, the 9-year-old tomboy protagonist, especially in her friendship with Dill, a character widely considered to have been based on Lee's own childhood friend, Truman Capote.
When he was a child, the author of "In Cold Blood" often stayed with his cousins, who lived next door to the Lees. Capote and Lee collaborated on the early stages of his novel and remained lifelong friends. The interior of the Monroe County Courthouse was reconstructed on a movie set in Hollywood for the film's pivotal courtroom scenes, and local actors bring the book to life each spring at the courthouse itself, where they stage "To Kill a Mockingbird" to sellout crowds.
The press-averse author was thrust into the public eye in February , when her publisher, HarperCollins, announced the upcoming release of "Go Set a Watchman," Lee's second and final full-length published work. The announcement almost immediately sparked rumors that Lee - who had long said she would never publish another novel - had been taken advantage of by her attorney, Tonja Carter. In February , the Alabama Department of Human Resources met with Lee at Meadows of Monroeville, the southern Alabama assisted living facility where she resided, and concluded that she was mentally competent to handle her affairs, but rumors persisted that she was not lucid enough to sign off on business decisions.
A guardedly private individual, Lee was respected and protected by residents of the town that displays Mockingbird-themed murals and each year stages theatrical productions of "To Kill a Mockingbird.
Harper Lee, the little girl named Nelle who grew up to write one of the 20th century's most culture-changing novels, has died in her beloved hometown of Monroeville, Ala. She was She died peacefully in the early hours of this morning at the age of Lee remained, to the end, immune to the blandishments of worldwide fame, which enveloped her in with the publication of her first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.
It won the Pulitzer Prize, has sold more than 30 million copies in English, remains in print selling more than a million copies a year and in every school in America, and, until last year, was her only book. After Mockingbird was published, after the Oscar-winning movie starring Gregory Peck came out in , Lee stopped talking to the press, went home to Monroeville and closed her door.
She kept it closed for decades, emerging only occasionally to write something for Lee-loving Oprah Winfrey's magazine, or to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush in the White House. And she stayed that way, even as the anniversary celebrations noisily proceeded throughout the nation. Now Aaron Sorkin is bringing a stage adaption to Broadway; he joined the scores of people, famous and not, issuing condolences.
I'm honored to have the opportunity to adapt her seminal novel for the stage," Sorkin said in a statement.
Through the uncorrupted eyes of a child, she showed us the beautiful complexity of our common humanity, and the importance of striving for justice in our own lives, our communities, and our country.
I will always cherish the time I spent with her. In steady prose shaded by memory and lyricism, she describes how an impulsive girl, Scout Finch, her older brother, Jem, their friend Dill and a variety of other townspeople get caught up in the case of Tom Robinson, a black man who's been accused of rape in the Depression-era town of Maycomb, Alabama.
Through it all, no character is more indelible than that of Scout's widower father, Atticus Finch. The scrupulous, fair-minded lawyer who defends the falsely accused Robinson in a racist courtroom set a standard for goodness and bravery that still resonates more than 50 years later.
The book won the Pulitzer Prize, and Gregory Peck, who played Atticus in the acclaimed movie, earned an Oscar for best actor. Finch was named the greatest hero in movie history in a American Film Institute survey. An earlier draft of the book, titled "Go Set a Watchman," was published in The book was criticized for a different portrayal of Atticus, who voices racist sentiments, and questions arose as to whether Lee actually wanted it released.
Differences between 'Mockingbird,' 'Watchman'. Despite mixed reviews, the book was one of the top sellers of Throughout all this, Lee maintained a low profile.
She had assisted her friend Truman Capote, the basis for Dill, while he researched his novel "In Cold Blood," and though he reveled in the praise and fortune that came with fame, she resisted it.
I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of reviewers, but at the same time I sort of hoped that maybe someone would like it enough to give me encouragement.
Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected. Even as "Mockingbird" became a fixture on high school reading lists and demands for her became ever more pronounced, she took shelter in New York and Alabama, hiding in plain sight.
It wasn't that she was reclusive, exactly; it's that she preferred to let her work speak for itself. At one event in her honor -- and there were many -- she was asked to address the audience at the Alabama Academy of Honor.
She turned down the opportunity. Nelle Harper Lee was born in Monroeville on April 28, She was the youngest of five children born to Amasa Coleman A.
Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch. Though A. The two became very close. She met Truman Persons, who was two years older, as a child. The tomboyish Lee and the sometimes petulant Persons, who was sent away by his parents to spend his summers in Monroeville, became close friends and would spend hours reading and making up stories. Recognizing his daughter's imaginative temperament, A. Lee gave her an Underwood typewriter.
She carried it everywhere. Photos: Famous writers and their typewriters. News of her death was reported on Friday, February Author William S. Burroughs sits with a typewriter in Mystery author Agatha Christie works at her home in this undated photo. Writer E. White looks at his pet dachshund, Minnie, while typing in his office at The New Yorker magazine circa William Faulkner, author of "Sartoris" and "Sanctuary," smokes a pipe in the early s.
Margaret Mitchell spent 10 years writing her one and only novel, "Gone with the Wind," which published in and became a feature film in Truman Capote, author of "In Cold Blood," "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and other classics, works on his first novel in Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond series of spy novels, works at his Jamaica home, nicknamed "Goldeneye," in this undated photo. Alfred Hitchcock, who directed more than 50 films including "Psycho" and "The Birds," works with actress Tippi Hedren on the set of his film "Marnie.
Helen Keller, the blind and deaf author and lecturer, sits at her typewriter in this undated photo. George Bernard Shaw, seen here in , wrote "Pygmalion" and more than 60 other plays. Langston Hughes, known for the poem "A Dream Deferred," sits with his typewriter circa Poet T. Eliot inspects manuscripts in this undated photo. Orson Welles directed and starred in "The Lady from Shanghai," a film noir involving a complex murder plot.
George Orwell, best known for his books "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four," works at his typewriter in this undated photo. Harper Lee: Fast Facts. Lee attended the University of Alabama, including a short stint in law school, but didn't finish. Instead, she moved to New York where Truman Persons, now Truman Capote, had established himself as one of the country's leading writers.
Lee, too, wanted to write but had little time to pursue the vocation until a pair of Capote's friends, Michael and Joy Brown, gave her a Christmas gift: They would pay all her expenses for a year. Lee took two to write "To Kill a Mockingbird. Though the book seems effortless, she told Newquist it came in stops and starts. After she finished "Mockingbird," Capote -- fresh off the success of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" -- invited her to assist him on a new project: the story of a murdered Kansas family, the Clutters.
Lee became part secretary, part interviewer, part go-between for the flamboyant Capote. The work they did would become the foundation of Capote's best-seller, "In Cold Blood. Indeed, it's never stopped selling; as of , it had sold 30 million copies and moves a million more each year. Lee was caught off guard by its success. It was one of sheer numbness. It was like being hit over the head and knocked cold," she told Newquist.
Book to screen. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was optioned for a movie. Lee was wary of Hollywood's attention but was allowed some input. Her choice for Atticus was Spencer Tracy, but he was unavailable. The studio's first choice was Rock Hudson. When Gregory Peck was chosen, he traveled to Monroeville to meet with Lee. Her time there was spent somewhat more prosaically in an extramural studies summer programme devoted to 20th-century Europe.
She returned to Tuscaloosa for her second year at law school but left in without taking a degree. By late she had settled in New York and worked in a series of low-paid jobs bookstore clerk, airline reservation clerk while beginning to write. Brown also steered her towards an agent, Maurice Crain. She wrote and rewrote short stories, but Crain suggested she write a novel. He liked the first draft, titled Go Set a Watchman, but advised a different title: Atticus might be better.
Lee was already at work on a second novel when the manuscript of Atticus was sent to the publishers JB Lippincott, where the editor Tay Hohoff liked it, but thought extensive revisions were needed. Lee complied and received a contract from Lippincott with an advance of several thousand dollars. She had not at that point published anything. Hohoff agreed with Lee that To Kill a Mockingbird was a better title. When it was finally published, in July , it was marketed and reviewed as a trade book for adults but went on to sell an astonishing , copies in the year after publication.
Lee denied the story had anything to do with the town, and returned to New York. There is an ice-cream shop where the family home once stood. The large, rambling building next door where Capote lived is a rubble-filled lot. The courthouse where Finch defended Robinson was saved from demolition in the s, and is now a museum of Lee and Capote memorabilia. The jury is drawn from local white men. For decades, Lee maintained a public silence.
In a forthright and brief refusal to provide an introduction to the 35th anniversary edition of To Kill a Mockingbird, she affirmed her commitment to the novel — and to her privacy.
One hapless reporter for a British newspaper presented Lee with a box of chocolates in the hope of turning polite gratitude into an interview. We have a lot of history here. You will enjoy it. Few knew what Lee looked like. She moved back to Monroeville in , lived briefly with her sister, and when her health deteriorated after a stroke in , she moved into sheltered accommodation.
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