Harper Lee

American novelist (1926-2016) · United States · Writers · Died at 89

Harper Lee is read about 1,879 times a day, in 91 languages.

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She wrote one of the most assigned novels in American schools, then went silent for half a century. To Kill a Mockingbird arrived in 1960, won the Pulitzer, and Lee published almost nothing else until an earlier draft surfaced two months before her death.

Writers Writer / Author Literature Fiction Music Screenwriting Movies United States

A life in dates

202611×100 years since their birth, on 28 April.28 April 2026What this moment rests on, 11 times the usual readers on 28 April 2026See the moment2019Alabama Women's Hall of FameAward2016Died19 February 20162007Presidential Medal of FreedomAward1980“Well, they’re Southern people, and if they know you are working at home they think nothing of walking right in for coffee. But they wouldn’t dream of interrupting you at golf.”In their words12 May 1980On why she has done her best creative thinking while playing golf, as quoted in Time (12 May 1980)Read the whole statement

1962“Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.”In their wordsEpigraph, quoting Charles LambRead the whole statement

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”In their wordsPt. 1, ch. 3Read the whole statement

“And it's certainly bad, but when a man spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains.”In their wordsPt. 1, ch.3Read the whole statement

“When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness' sake. But don't make a production of it.”In their wordsPt. 1, ch. 9Read the whole statement

“Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don't pretend to understand.”In their wordsPt. 1, ch. 9Read the whole statement

1961Pulitzer Prize for FictionAward1926Born28 April 1926

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Harper Lee Medal (cropped)

Harper Lee Medal

Apr28 Woman of the Day

Cynthia Shackleford gets caught reading (1223983202)

Harper Lee Nov07

HarperLee 2007Nov05

Photo portrait of Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird dust jacket, 1960) (cropped)

Photo portrait of Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird dust jacket, 1960)

In their own words 10

Harper Lee

10 statements, newest first

Well, they’re Southern people, and if they know you are working at home they think nothing of walking right in for coffee. But they wouldn’t dream of interrupting you at golf.
May 12, 1980, On why she has done her best creative thinking while playing golf, as quoted in Time (12 May 1980), Own words
Recently I have received echoes down this way of the Hanover County School Board's activities, and what I've heard makes me wonder if any of its members can read.
Jan 14, 1966, Letter to the editor of The Richmond News Leader (14 January 1966), in response to the Hanover County School Board's decision to ban her, Own words
Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.
1962, Epigraph, quoting Charles Lamb, Own words

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Awards

Alabama Women's Hall of Fame2019

Presidential Medal of Freedom2007

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction1961

National Medal of Arts

Family

Parents

Harper Lee

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About this person

Nelle Harper Lee was born April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama, where she watched her neighbors and a 1936 local incident that would shape the bones of To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel arrived in 1960 - a child's-eye view of race, class, and irrational hatred in the 1930s Deep South - and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. She helped her close friend Truman Capote research In Cold Blood, then published nearly nothing for decades. In July 2015, Go Set a Watchman appeared, an earlier draft set later in the same world. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 and died February 19, 2016, nine months after Watchman and nine years before a collection of essays and stories saw print.

Country

United States

In common with Harper

Gregory PeckAlso in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Brock PetersAlso in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Robert DuvallAlso in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Esther RolleAlso in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Kim StanleyAlso in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Saul BellowBoth received Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

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