Harper Lee: 1926-2016

Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama on April 28, 1926. She is the youngest of four children. One of her childhood friends is Truman Capote, the author of In Cold Blood and Breakfat at Tiffany's. Harper Lee attended Huntingdon College (1944-45), studied law at University of Alabama (1945-49), and also studied one year at Oxford University.

In the 1950s Harper Lee worked as a reservation clerk with Eastern Air Lines and BOAC in New York City. But in order to concentrate on writing she gave up her position with the airline.

Rumour has it that it was Truman Capote who urged her to write.

In 1957 Miss Lee submitted the manuscript of her novel To Kill a Mockingbird to the J. B. Lippincott Company. She was told that her novel consisted of a series of short stories strung together, and that she should re-write it. For the next two and a half years she re-worked the manuscript. In 1960 To Kill a Mockingbird was published, her only published book.

Miss Lee prefers to keep her life private; she does not give interviews and very little is known about her private life.

Miss Lee has received a number of honorary doctorates. She seems to divide her time now between New York and Monroeville.