On April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama, Nelle Harper Lee was born. The American author, famous for writing the classic, To Kill A Mockingbird, was the youngest of four children. Her father was a lawyer who worked in the Alabama state legislature while her mother suffered from mental illness for most of Lee's young life. One of Lee's closest childhood friends was another writer-to-be, Truman Capote. After graduating from high school, Lee attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery then transferred to the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, where she studied law. She spent the summer before her senior year as an exchange student at Oxford University in England, but when she returned to the States for her fall semester, Lee dropped out of law school. She later moved to New York City in 1949 to follow her dreams of becoming a writer. In 1960 she published her famous work To Kill A Mockingbird, winning the Pulitzer Prize for her work a year later. Ever since the publication, Lee has stayed on the down-low, refusing interviews and staying hidden in her homes in New York City and Monroeville. To Kill A Mockingbird was Harper Lee's sole book, but nonetheless proved to be a classic American novel for generations and generations to come.
Sources:
http://www.harperlee.com/bio.htm
http://www.biography.com/articles/Harper-Lee-9377021?part=2
http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-lee-harper.asp
http://www.nndb.com/people/572/000025497/
Even though TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD was her only published book, Harper Lee actually wrote another novel. This one wasn't published though. I thought it was interesting that she dropped out of law school. After reading of her personality, I do not think that she would have fit in well with the strict confines of the legal field.
ReplyDeleteJeez, you did fabulous with your research, you covered up most of her life. I learned a lot from reading your post, from learning that she was an exchange student at Oxford University and founding out that her childhood friend is none other than Truman Capote! WOW! Good sources, I can tell they are really reliable and trustworthy. Please research more cause your posts are rich! Again, keep up the super-duper work with your posts.
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