·Born on April 18, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama
·Youngest of 4 children
·Father was Amasa Coleman Lee (Based character Atticus Finch on A.C. Lee)
· Practiced law and served in Alabama State Legislature
· Mother was Frances Cunnignham Finch
·She was very bipolar and because lee did not have a strong tie with her, she thought of her mother as dead
· As a child, Lee was a tomboy, a precocious reader, and best friends with her schoolmate and neighbor, the young Truman Capote.
·Monroe County High School
· She went to the all-female Huntingdon College in Montgomery.
· Transferring to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Lee was known for being something of a loner and an individualist.
·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.
· She went to Oxford University that summer as an exchange student.
· Returning to her law studies that fall, Lee dropped out after the first semesterShe soon moved to New York City to pursue her hopes of becoming a writer.
· Lee arrived in New York City in 1949, aged 23. She struggled for several years, working as a ticket agent for Eastern Airlines and for the British Overseas Air Corp
· 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 Brown and his wife, Joy. Having written several long stories, Harper Lee found an agent in November 1956. The following month at the Browns' East 50th townhouse, she received a gift of a year's wages from them with a note: "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas." She quit the airline and devoted herself to writing. Within a year, she had a first draft.
· She eventually showed the manuscript to Tay Hohoff, an editor at J. B. Lippincott & Co.
· Published July 11, 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate bestseller and won great critical acclaim, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. It remains a bestseller with more than 30 million copies in print. In 1999, it was voted "Best Novel of the Century" in a poll by the Library Journal.
·Youngest of 4 children
·Father was Amasa Coleman Lee (Based character Atticus Finch on A.C. Lee)
· Practiced law and served in Alabama State Legislature
· Mother was Frances Cunnignham Finch
·She was very bipolar and because lee did not have a strong tie with her, she thought of her mother as dead
· As a child, Lee was a tomboy, a precocious reader, and best friends with her schoolmate and neighbor, the young Truman Capote.
·Monroe County High School
· She went to the all-female Huntingdon College in Montgomery.
· Transferring to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Lee was known for being something of a loner and an individualist.
·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.
· She went to Oxford University that summer as an exchange student.
· Returning to her law studies that fall, Lee dropped out after the first semesterShe soon moved to New York City to pursue her hopes of becoming a writer.
· Lee arrived in New York City in 1949, aged 23. She struggled for several years, working as a ticket agent for Eastern Airlines and for the British Overseas Air Corp
· 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 Brown and his wife, Joy. Having written several long stories, Harper Lee found an agent in November 1956. The following month at the Browns' East 50th townhouse, she received a gift of a year's wages from them with a note: "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas." She quit the airline and devoted herself to writing. Within a year, she had a first draft.
· She eventually showed the manuscript to Tay Hohoff, an editor at J. B. Lippincott & Co.
· Published July 11, 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate bestseller and won great critical acclaim, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. It remains a bestseller with more than 30 million copies in print. In 1999, it was voted "Best Novel of the Century" in a poll by the Library Journal.