Harper Lee Biography Harper Lee What We Know

Harper Lee Biography

Harper Lee – What We Know Born April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama as Nelle Harper Lee Her father was a lawyer, a member of the Alabama state legislature and also owned part of the local newspaper Youngest of 4 children, was a tomboy Childhood friends of Truman Capote, small, a sissy, and often bullied, Lee was his protector

Harper Lee – What We Know Took 2 years to write Mockingbird, finished in 1959, published in 1960 Won the Pulitzer Prize Began writing a 2 nd book that she never finished Helped Truman Capote with his book In Cold Blood Withdrew from public life and would not give interviews

Influences for TKAM Her father became a title lawyer, he once defended two black men accused of murdering a white storekeeper. Both clients, a father and son, were hanged. Also rumored that the Scottsboro Boys case influenced her

Truman Capote – What We Know Born September 30, 1924 Died August 25, 1984 Would stay with family in Monroeville every summer Eventually moved to NYC and was caught up in the social life Very extravagant in all aspects of his life

Truman Capote – What We Know Wrote Breakfast at Tiffanys Wrote In Cold Blood…. the first nonfiction novel Known for his books, as well as his personal life. . gay, high pitched voice, very short, odd mannerisms, partier

What Truman Said…. “Mr. and Mrs. Lee, Harper Lee’s mother and father, lived very near. She was my best friend. Did you ever read her book, To Kill a Mockingbird? I’m a character in the book, which takes place in the same small town in Alabama where we lived. Her father was a lawyer, and she and I used to go to trials all the time as children. We used to go to trials instead of going to the movies. ”

What Truman said…. “He was a real man, and he lived just down the road from us. We used to go and get those things out of the trees. Everything she wrote about is absolutely true. ” – on Boo Radley

But…. . He had so many extravagant stories…. . Can he be trusted? Is he a reliable source?

Harper claims…. The book is not autobiographical….

In Cold Blood (1966) Capote’s most successful book is released in 1966 He doesn’t get the Pulitzer He acknowledges Lee, but did she deserve more…. ? Soon after they stop speaking. . and essentially go their separate ways

Banned Books TKAM becomes one of the most challenged books and when the Richmond, VA school board tried to ban the book on called it “immoral literature”, Lee wrote them….

Lee’s response… “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. Surely it is plain to the simplest intelligence that “To Kill a Mockingbird” spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor and conduct, Christian in its ethic, that is the heritage of all Southerners. To hear that the novel is "immoral" has made me count the years between now and 1984, for I have yet to come across a better example of doublethink. I feel, however, that the problem is one of illiteracy, not Marxism. Therefore I enclose a small contribution to the Beadle Bumble Fund that I hope will be used to enroll the Hanover County School Board in any first grade of its choice. ”

Mockingbird Next Door Marja Mills – Chicago Tribune writer went to Alabama to write an article on Lee and ended up becoming friends with Lee and her sister Alice Mills moved next door and spent years with them Mills wrote Mockingbird Next Door in 2014 with their blessing

Go Set a Watchmen 2015 – Go Set a Watchmen is published It is a sequel to Mockingbird that was written BEFORE Mockingbird Follows the story of Scout who comes home to visit Atticus 20 years later Questions about the publication…. Why was it published now? Did Lee actually give the ok? Or was she taken advantage of?

Death Harper Lee died in her sleep on February 19, 2016 She still lived in Monroeville, Alabama