Harper Lee

American author of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize novel "To Kill a Mockingbird." The novel was made into an Oscar-winning film the following year starring Gregory Peck and has since been translated into ten foreign languages with a 74th printing in 1974.

Lee was the youngest of four children of Amasa Coleman Lee, a lawyer, and homemaker mother Frances Cunningham Finch. After attending Huntingdon College from 1944-1945, she studied law at the University of Alabama from 1945-1949, and spent one year at Oxford University. During the '50s she was employed as a reservation agent for Eastern Airlines in York City.

Deciding to put all her energy into writing, Lee left her job with the airlines and moved into a cold-water flat with makeshift furniture. When her beloved father suddenly became ill, she divided her time between New York and Monroeville, a practice she still continues.

In 1957, Lee submitted her completed manuscript to J.B. Lippincott Company. She was told that her novel consisted of a series of short stories that were strung together and was encouraged to rewrite it. After re-working the manuscript, two and a half years later "To Kill A Mockingbird" was finally published in 1960 and remained until 2015 Lee's only published book. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Lee to the National Council for the Arts.

Lee is as famous for her quiet lifestyle as she is for her novel. When asked why she never wrote another book, she replied, "When you have a hit like that, you can't go anywhere but down." Never granting interviews, Lee's main activities are said to be 19th century literature, 18th century music, cats, traveling - and protecting her privacy.

On 14 July 2015 Harper Lee's second novel "Go Set a Watchman" was released. Initially promoted by its publisher as a sequel, it is now more widely accepted as a first draft of "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Lee died in her sleep on the morning of 19 February 2016 in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, aged 89.