Harper Lee

Nelle Harper Lee was born on the 28th day of April in 1926, in southwest Alabama in a small town called Monroeville. Monroeville has a population of 7,000 people.

Harper Lee is the youngest of four children of Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Lee. Harper Lee went to Huntingdon College from 1944-45, from 1945-49 she studied law at the University of Alabama, and attended one year at Oxford University. In the 1950’s she worked as a reservation clerk with BOAC in New York City and with Eastern Air Lines.

In 1957 Harper Lee handed in the manuscript of her novel to the J.B. Lippincott Company. She was told that her novel was a bunch of short stories put together, and she was urged to re-write it. Finally in 1960 she published her first and only book to get published, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Harper Lee has won many awards, they are; Pulitzer Prize, 1961, Alabama Library Association award, 1961, Brotherhood Award of National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1961, Bestsellers’ paperback of the year award, 1962. All these awards were for To Kill a Mockingbird.

Harper Lee had two articles published in 1961: Love - - In Other Words, in Vogue and Christmas To Me, in McCalls. Christmas To Me is the story of Harper Lee getting the gift of a years time for writing from her friends. In 1965 When Children Discover America was published.

In June 1966, President Johnson named Harper Lee to the National Council of Arts.

Harper Lee has received many honorary doctorates. In 1997 she received an honorary doctorate of humane letters at Spring Hill College in Mobile Alabama. Professor Margaret Davis told Harper Lee that she was being honoured for her “lyrical elegance, her portrayal of human strength, and wisdom.”

A couple of Harper Lee’s interests were golf and music.