Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, almost became a lawyer but pursued writing instead. The novel won a Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a successful film. Lee’s reclusive nature has led to speculation about her personal life and writing career.
Harper Lee is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Born on April 28, 1926, Harper Lee almost became a lawyer. He attended the University of Alabama Law School but left with only one semester left to receive his degree.
After attending Oxford University for a year, Lee went to New York to pursue a career as a writer in 1950. Within ten years, she had finished her first and only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. In 1961, a year after it was first published, the novel won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It remains a big favourite. In 1999, Library Journal voted To Kill a Mockingbird “the best novel of the century.”
Set in Alabama and highly biographical, the story of To Kill a Mockingbird is told from the point of view of a young girl named Scout. Much of the story revolves around the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell, which disrupts Scout’s quiet world of children’s play. Ultimately, the novel is about a young girl who learns about the world around her, especially through conversations with her father Atticus, a symbol of honor, integrity and courage. Atticus is the defendant’s attorney, and while he is unable to rescue the defendant, his pursuit of the case teaches the Scouts valuable life lessons, including the importance of standing by one’s values in the face of opposition.
In addition to the novel’s literary success, its film adaptation was warmly received. Gregory Peck not only won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Atticus, he also became a longtime friend of Harper Lee. Harper Lee was also friends with author Truman Capote, who is the basis for the character Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee was the inspiration for a character in Capote’s book, Other Voices, Other Rooms. Capote is also said to have written To Kill a Mockingbird.
Despite such allegations, Harper Lee continues to receive recognition for her beloved novel. When she received an honorary degree from Notre Dame, Harper Lee was treated to the sight of all graduate students possessing a copy of her novel about her. She was also admitted to the National Council of the Arts.
As speculation about another novel continues, Harper Lee continues to be lonely. In an interview a few years after the success of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee explained that one of his goals in writing the novel was to talk about life in a southern city whose sheer simplicity should be celebrated and its loss mourned. To Kill a Mockingbird was not born out of a need to create a great work of art. Instead, it was a story Lee felt he needed to tell.
The success of her novel, while delightful, scared Lee slightly and probably continues to do so to some extent. She rarely gives interviews and her public appearances mostly consist of attending receptions for the winners of a writing contest named after her. This behavior remains the same despite growing curiosity about Harper Lee after films like Infamous, based on her life. In an interview with The New York Times, she stated that she spends much of her time declining requests for interviews. Despite the availability of her novel, which has been printed in several languages, Harper Lee has avoided the limelight for over four decades.
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