Date of Birth: April 28, 1926
Zodiac Sign: Taurus
Date of Death: February 19, 2016
Biography
Nelle Harper Lee, commonly known as Harper Lee, was an American novelist renowned for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” published in 1960. Born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama, Lee grew up in a small town that significantly influenced her writing. Her father, Amasa Coleman Lee, was a lawyer and served as a model for Atticus Finch, the moral center of her most famous work. Lee attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery before transferring to the University of Alabama, where she studied law. However, she did not complete her degree, moving to New York City in 1949 to pursue a career in writing. In New York, she worked as an airline reservation agent while writing in her spare time. “To Kill a Mockingbird” became an instant bestseller and has since become a classic of modern American literature, dealing with serious issues such as racial inequality and moral growth. Despite the novel’s success, Lee remained out of the public eye and published very little afterwards. In 2015, her second novel, “Go Set a Watchman,” was controversially published, which is considered a sequel as well as an earlier draft of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Harper Lee passed away on February 19, 2016, in Monroeville, Alabama, leaving behind a legacy that continues to inspire and provoke thought in readers around the world.
5 Interesting Facts about Harper Lee
1. Harper Lee was a close childhood friend of Truman Capote, and she assisted him in the research for his book “In Cold Blood.”
2. “To Kill a Mockingbird” has sold over 30 million copies worldwide and has been translated into more than 40 languages.
3. Lee was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 for her contribution to literature.
4. She lived a reclusive life, rarely giving interviews or making public appearances after the success of her first novel.
5. Harper Lee’s original manuscript for “Go Set a Watchman” was discovered in a safe deposit box in 2014, leading to its controversial publication in 2015.
5 Most Interesting Quotes from Harper Lee
1. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
2. “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”
3. “Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”
4. “People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.”
5. “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
Highest Net Worth Achieved
The highest net worth achieved by Harper Lee was estimated to be around $35 million, primarily from the royalties of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Children
Harper Lee did not have any children.
Relevant Links
1. [Harper Lee – Biography](https://www.biography.com/writer/harper-lee
2. [Harper Lee – Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harper_Lee
3. [To Kill a Mockingbird – Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird
4. [Go Set a Watchman – Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Set_a_Watchman
5. [Harper Lee – The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/books/harper-lee
