Harper+Lee+Bio

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Source [|www.biography.com]
 * Harper Lee **

Born Nelle Harper Lee on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama. Lee Harper is best known for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning best-seller // To Kill a // // Mockingbird // (1960)—her one and only novel. The youngest of four children, she grew up as a tomboy in a small town. Her father was a lawyer, a member of the Alabama state legislature, and also owned part of the local newspaper. For most of Lee’s life, her mother suffered from mental illness, rarely leaving the house. It is believed that she may have had bipolar disorder. One of her closest childhood friends was another writer-to-be, Truman Capote (then known as Truman Persons). Tougher than many of the boys, Lee often stepped up to serve as Truman’s protector. Truman, who shared few interests with boys his age, was picked on for being a sissy and for the fancy clothes he wore. While the two friends were very different, they both shared in having difficult home lives. Truman was living with his mother’s relatives in town after largely being abandoned by his own parents. In high school, Lee developed an interest in English literature. After graduating in 1944, she went to the all-female Huntingdon College in Montgomery. Lee stood apart from the other students—she could have cared less about fashion, makeup, or dating. Instead, she focused on her studies and on her writing. Lee was a member of the literary honor society and the glee club. Transferring to the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, Lee was known for being a loner and an individualist. She did make a greater attempt at a social life there, joining a sorority for a while. Pursuing her interest in writing, Lee contributed to the school’s newspaper and its humor magazine, the // Rammer Jammer //. She eventually became the editor of the // Rammer Jammer //. In her junior year, Lee was accepted into the university’s law school, which allowed students to work on law degrees while still undergraduates. The demands of her law studies forced her to leave her post as editor of the // Rammer Jammer //. After her first year in the law program, Lee began expressing to her family that writing—not the law—was her true calling. She went to Oxford University in England that summer as an exchange student. Returning to her law studies that fall, Lee dropped out after the first semester. She soon moved to New York City to follow her dreams to become a writer. In 1949, a 23-year-old Lee arrived in New York City. She struggled for several years, working as a ticket agent for Eastern Airlines and for the British Overseas Air Corp (BOAC). While in the city, Lee was reunited with old friend Truman Capote, one of the literary rising stars of the time. She also befriended Broadway composer and lyricist Michael Martin Brown and his wife Joy. In 1956, the Browns gave Lee an impressive Christmas present—to support her for a year so that she could write full time. She quit her job and devoted herself to her craft. The Browns also helped her find an agent, Maurice Crain. He, in turn, was able to get the publishing firm interested in her first novel, which was first titled // Go Set a Watchman //, then // Atticus //, and later // To Kill a Mockingbird //. Working with editor Tay Hohoff, Lee finished the manuscript in 1959. Later that year, Lee joined forces with old friend Truman Capote to assist him with an article he was writing for // The New Yorker //. Capote was writing about the impact of the murder of four members of the Clutter family on their small Kansas farming community. The two traveled to Kansas to interview townspeople, friends and family of the deceased, and the investigators working to solve the crime. Serving as his research assistant, Lee helped with the interviews, eventually winning over some of the locals with her easy-going, unpretentious manner. Truman, with his flamboyant personality and style, also had a hard time initially getting himself into his subjects’ good graces. During their time in Kansas, the Cutters’s suspected killers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, were caught in Las Vegas and brought back for questioning. Lee and Capote got a chance to interview the suspects not long after their arraignment in January 1960. Soon after, Lee and Capote returned to New York. She worked on the galleys for her forthcoming first novel while he started working on his article, which would evolve into the nonfiction masterpiece, // In Cold Blood //. The pair returned to Kansas in March for the murder trial. Later that spring, Lee gave Capote all of her notes on the crime, the victims, the killers, the local communities, and much more.

Soon Lee was engrossed her literary success story. In July 1960, // To Kill a // // Mockingbird // was published and picked up by the Book-of-the-Month Club and the Literary Guild. A condensed version of the story appeared in // Reader’s Digest // magazine. The work’s central character, a young girl nicknamed Scout, was not unlike Lee in her youth. In one of the book’s major plotlines, Scout and her brother Jem and their friend Dill explore their fascination with a mysterious and somewhat infamous neighborhood character named Boo Radley. But the work was more than a coming-of-age story, however. Another part of the novel reflected racial prejudices in the South. Their attorney father, Atticus Finch, tries to help a black man who has been charged with raping a white woman to get a fair trial and to prevent him from being lynched by angry whites in a small town. The following year, // To Kill a Mockingbird // won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize and several other literary awards. Horton Foote wrote a screenplay based on the book and used the same title for the 1962 film adaptation. Lee visited the set during filming and did a lot of interviews to support the film. Earning eight Academy Award nominations, the movie version of // To Kill a Mockingbird // won four awards, including Best Actor for Gregory Peck’s portrayal of Atticus Finch. The character of Atticus is said to have been based on Lee’s father. By the mid-1960s, Lee was reportedly working on a second novel, but it was never published. Continuing to help Capote, Lee worked with him on and off on // In Cold Blood //. She had been invited by Smith and Hickock to witness their execution in 1965, but she declined. When Capote’s book was finally published in 1966, a rift developed between the two friends and collaborators. Capote dedicated to the book to Lee and his longtime lover Jack Dunphy, but he failed to acknowledge her contributions to the work. While Lee was very angry and hurt by this betrayal, she remained friends with Truman for the rest of his life. That same year, Lee had an operation on her hand to repair damage done by a bad burn. She also accepted a post on the National Council of the Arts at the request of President Lyndon B. Johnson. During the 1970s and 1980s, Lee largely retreated from public life. She spent some of her time on a nonfiction book project about an Alabama serial killer, which had the working title // The Reverend //. But the work was never published. Lee continues to live a quiet, private life in New York City and Monroeville. Active in her church and community, she usually avoids anything to do with her still popular novel.


 * Harper Lee to break her silence on writing just one novel **


 * London **

// April 30, 2011 //



Gregory Peck, left, and Brock Peters in the film. //Photo: Reuters//

After winning the Pulitzer Prize for her 1960 debut novel, //To Kill a Mockingbird//, Harper Lee talked excitedly of her plans to carry on writing and become the Jane Austen of south Alabama.

Yet, for reasons unknown, she was never published again. Now, 51 years after that one and only book was published, one of the literary world's greatest mysteries is about to be solved.

The elusive Lee, who celebrated her 85th birthday on Thursday, has co-operated with a new biography that will reveal why she never wrote another novel.

// The Mockingbird Next Door //, written by Marja Mills, should lay to rest the conspiracy theories surrounding Lee's retreat from the public eye - from unsubstantiated claims that she became an alcoholic to the suggestion that //To Kill a Mockingbird// was actually written by her best friend, Truman Capote.

Lee has not granted an interview since 1964.


 * Telegraph, London **

Read more: [|http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/harper-lee-to-break-her-silence-on-writing-just-one-novel-20110429-1e0mr.html#ixzz1MP9iIL7E]

Harper Lee

[A writer] //should write about what he knows and//

// write truthfully. //

—Harper Lee

Harper Lee has followed her own advice in

writing about what she knows. In fact, critics

have noted many parallels between the novel and

Lee’s early life. Maycomb, the setting for the novel,

bears a striking resemblance to the small town of

Monroeville, Alabama, where Lee grew up in the

1930s. Like Scout, the narrator of the novel, Lee’s

family has deep roots in Alabama. Her father,

Amasa Coleman Lee, was a descendant of General

Robert E. Lee. A lawyer and state legislator, Lee’s

father likely served as the model for Atticus Finch,

Scout’s father in the novel.

The author was born on April 28, 1926, as

Nelle Harper Lee. During her childhood, Lee

read avidly. By the time she was a teenager, she

had begun to set her sights on a writing career—

a goal she shared with her childhood friend, wellknown

author Truman Capote.

At the University of Alabama, Lee wrote

reviews, editorials, and satires for college publications.

After graduating, she pursued a law degree

at the same university. In 1949, however, she

withdrew and moved to New York City with the

goal of becoming a writer.

While working at other jobs, Lee submitted

stories and essays to publishers. All were rejected.

An agent, however, took an interest in one of her

short stories and suggested she expand it into a

novel. By 1957 she had finished a draft of //To Kill//

// a Mockingbird. // A publisher to whom she sent the

novel saw its potential but thought it needed

reworking. With her editor, Lee spent two and a

half more years revising the manuscript. By 1960

the novel was published. In a 1961 interview with

// Newsweek // magazine, Lee commented:

// Writing is the hardest thing in the world, //

// . . . but writing is the only thing that has //

// made me completely happy. //

// To Kill a Mockingbird // was an immediate and

widespread success. Within a year, the novel sold

half a million copies and received the Pulitzer

Prize for fiction. Within two years, it was turned

into a highly acclaimed film.

Readers admire the novel’s sensitive and probing

treatment of race relations.

But, equally, they

enjoy its vivid account of childhood in a small

rural town. Summing up the novel’s enduring

impact in a 1974 review, R. A. Dave called //To Kill//

// a Mockingbird //

// . . . a movingly human drama of the //

// jostling worlds—of children and adults, of //

// innocence and experience, of kindness and //

// cruelty, of love and hatred, of humor and //

// pathos, and above all of appearance and //

// reality—all taking the reader to the root of //

// human behavior. //

For almost four decades, Harper Lee has

declined to comment on her popular—and

only—novel, //To Kill a Mockingbird,// preferring

instead to let the novel speak for itself. Today,

the novel continues to delight and inspire

millions of readers.