HARPER LEE BACKGROUND INFORMATION Nelle Harper Lee Is

HARPER LEE BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Nelle Harper Lee • Is a descendant of Southern general Robert E. Lee.

Birth • Harper Lee was born in 1926 to Frances Finch Cunningham Lee (her mother) and Amasa Coleman Lee (her father), a lawyer. Her dad, Amasa Coleman Lee

Childhood • She grew up in the small Alabama town of Monroeville. • She was the youngest of three children.

Childhood • One of her best childhood friends was her schoolmate and neighbor, Truman Capote, the author of Handcarved Coffins.

Young Adulthood • As an adult, she studied law at the University of Alabama before pursuing a writing career. • Upon leaving Alabama, Harper Lee traveled to New York City where she worked as an airline reservation clerk. • Eventually she resigned from that job and moved into a cheap, drab apartment and concentrated on her writing.

Writing • In 1957, she submitted the first manuscript of To Kill a Mockingbird. • The editors criticized her work and said it was not cohesive. • For the next 30 months, Lee worked to revise the entire book. • Lee says the revision was very difficult, as writing had never been easy for her.

To Kill a Mockingbird • Finally, in 1960, her first and only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was published. It became an instant bestseller and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961.

To Kill a Mockingbird • Was made into an Academy Award-winning film, starring Gregory Peck, in 1962.

Today • Lee’s novel continues to have wide readership. It is widely read in schools across the United States. • One reason To Kill a Mockingbird has retained such a large audience is its important, well-stated themes about prejudice, justice, and human dignity.

Characters in the novel • Another reason for the attraction of Lee’s story is the presence of an appealing narrator, Scout Finch. • Lee drew upon her own childhood when she created Scout. • Both she and the narrator were inquisitive tomboys. • She was also the same age as Scout in the years covered by the novel.

Connection to Lee’s Life • In fact, many of the details in To Kill a Mockingbird reflect Harper Lee’s own life. • Atticus Finch, the central adult character in the novel, is certainly patterned after Lee’s own father, who was also a lawyer.

Connection to Lee’s Life • Truman Capote served as a model for Dill.

Connection to Lee’s Life • Lee also drew upon her memories of Monroeville citizens, social conventions, and locale to create a memorable cast of characters and setting.