Trending
To Kill A Mockingbird
About the Author
Harper Lee (1926–2016) was born and grew up in Monroeville, Alabama, and her small-town Southern childhood inspired the plot and characters of To Kill a Mockingbird (1960, Folio 2024). After high school she studied law at the University of Alabama but never graduated, moving instead to New York for work and continuing to write in her spare time. In 1956 friends gave her a year’s pay as a Christmas gift, urging her to complete the manuscript of what would become To Kill a Mockingbird (1960, Folio 2024). When the novel was published and instantly recognised as a modern classic, Lee found the demands of publicity excessive and largely disappeared from public view. She continued to live in New York for many years, near to her friend Truman Capote, whom she helped with research for his true-crime book In Cold Blood (1966, Folio 2011). Lee published no other substantial work until 2015, when Go Set a Watchman (2015) – a sequel or alternative version to Mockingbird – was published, amid some controversy. Lee died in Monroeville the following year.