Diksia.com - Harper Lee was one of the most influential and celebrated writers of the 20th century. Her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, won the Pulitzer Prize and became a classic of modern American literature.
The novel, which deals with the issues of racism, justice, and childhood in the segregated South, has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and has been adapted into a film, a play, and a graphic novel. Lee’s life and work have inspired generations of readers, writers, and activists.
Lee was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama, a small town that served as the model for the fictional Maycomb in her novel. She was the youngest of four children of Amasa Coleman Lee, a lawyer and state legislator, and Frances Finch Lee, a homemaker.
Lee’s father defended two black men accused of murder in a case that influenced her portrayal of Atticus Finch, the courageous lawyer who defends a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Lee’s childhood friend Truman Capote, who later became a famous writer himself, also influenced her character of Dill Harris, Scout’s imaginative and adventurous friend.
Lee studied law at the University of Alabama but left without earning a degree. She moved to New York City in 1949 to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. She worked as an airline reservationist while writing short stories in her spare time.
In 1956, she received a generous gift from friends that allowed her to quit her job and focus on writing full-time. With the help of an editor, she transformed a series of short stories into To Kill a Mockingbird, which was published to critical acclaim and commercial success in 1960.
Lee also helped her friend Capote with his research for his nonfiction masterpiece In Cold Blood, which chronicled the murder of a Kansas family by two drifters. Lee accompanied Capote to Kansas and interviewed witnesses and locals, providing him with valuable insights and information.
She also acted as his moral support and mediator during his tense relationship with the killers. Lee was portrayed by Catherine Keener in the 2005 film Capote and by Sandra Bullock in the 2006 film Infamous.
