Lee, Harper (1926–)

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Lee, Harper (1926–)

American writer. Name variations: Nelle. Born Nelle Harper Lee, April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Albama; dau. of Amasa Coleman Lee (lawyer and editor of the local weekly Monroeville Journal) and Frances (Finch) Lee (pianist); attended Huntingdon College, 1944–45; studied law at University of Alabama, 1945–49; studied 1 year at Oxford University; never married; no children.

Author of the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill A Mockingbird, which presented a loving, yet uncompromising, portrait of the morality of the American South where whites ruled by oppressing blacks, grew up in Monroeville where her dear friend Truman Capote spent summers next door; broke off legal studies and moved to NY to become a writer; worked as airline reservations clerk with Eastern Airlines and British Overseas Airlines (1950s); quit job to devote full time to writing; returned to Alabama to help nurse ailing father and wrote short stories that became To Kill A Mockingbird, which was published to universal acclaim (1960); never published again.

See also Women in World History.