Emma Dexter

Ms. Mckenzie

Adv. American Lit

25 April 2017

Harper Lee Biography

Harper Lee is a classic American novelist. She was born on April 28, 1926 in Alabama.

Lee grew up being the young out of all the 4 children that her mother Amasa Coleman Lee and

her father Francis Cunningham Finch Lee had. Lee only wrote two books throughout her

lifetime, one being in the 1960s, and then nothing but silence from her typewriter until 2015.

Lee is not like most authors, as she did not want to accept the fact of being famous for something

she just enjoyed doing (NY Times).

Harper Lee grew up in Monroeville, Alabama. Lees full name is Nelle Harper Lee,

which most people dont know. The setting of her best-seller To Kill a Mockingbird is known to

be extremely like the environment in which she grew up in. The neighborhood she spent her

childhood in had the towns mysterious, creepy man; along with neighbors that knew everything

about everyone that lived in the neighborhood. Along with growing up in a similar community as

the setting in TKAM, Harper was also a lawyers daughter, just like Scout in her novel. Her

father had been to court with a case over two colored men being accused of murdering a white

store clerk, and the two men were hanged, as a result of the racial inequalities, they sparked

Lees creativeness for her novel. Lee became best friends with a little boy named Truman

Streckfus Persons while she was in kindergarten. Their friendship grew and grew, and they got

much closer, therefore, Lee ended up basing a character in TKAM off Persons. Persons was
based off Dill, who was a determined little boy, he would come visit from Meridian, Mississippi,

every summer. Dills main goal was to get Boo Radley out of his house. To have this ambitious

young boy based off Truman, shows a lot about who he was as a person. Persons eventually

began to write, and was still good friends with Lee throughout their lifetimes, and had used the

pseudonym Truman Capote as he continued to publish novels (Shmoop Paragraphs 1-3).

Harper Lee won wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning book, which most have heard a lot about.

Lee is a very well-known author because of her book To Kill a Mockingbird, which sold over 40

million copies, and is now an American Literature classic. Harper Lees best, and one out of two

books is To Kill a Mockingbird. TKAM is a fictional novel based on the unsettling ways racism

can affect people. Racism was very common, and was a huge problem at the time when Lee had

written and published the book. As mentioned earlier, Lee had even witnessed her father

defending racial equality cases, just as Scout did alongside of her father Atticus. TKAM was

published on July 11, 1960 in New York (Eureka 1). Just quite recently, Lee published Go Set a

Watchman, in July of 2015. Go Set a Watchman is her second novel and seems to be doing quite

well. Fans of TKAM had been begging to hear more out of Lee, yet most gave up after 55 years

of silence. There was an enormous uproar of excitement whenever Go Set a Watchman was

finally released. The book sold over 1.1 million copies (Business Insider)!

Harper Lee grew famous very soon after the publication of TKAM, yet she had no

interest in being in the public eye. In a radio interview in 1964 Lees exact words were, I was

hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers, but, at the same time I sort

of hoped someone would like it well enough to give me encouragement (NY Times). Just

months after the release of TKAM in 1960, Lee refused to attend to any more interviews she had

been invited to (Readers Digest). It is not often that you see an author, or anyone for that matter,
shoot their way to fame within a matter of months, and reject it because they dont like the public

eye. Most people are begging for attention and want to be famous, but Harper Lee is an outsider

for that matter. It shows a lot of character to who Lee was as an individual. She stayed silent,

without releasing any books or novels for the greedy readers that had read TKAM, for 55 years

until her publication of the prequel to TKAM, Go Set a Watchman (Readers Digest). It is

understandable if the spotlight just isn't for Lee, but it is just quite surprising to see how she

reacted to the publicity after becoming an extremely well-known author for her classic novel. It

is also quite surprising to many to see the way Lee lives her life. Of course, after publishing a

novel that was a #1 best-seller, you would expect a little bit of cash from it. Well, Lees estimated

net worth is rounded to about $35 million (Celebrity Net Worth), and she shared a house with her

sister, did not even own a washing machine, therefore, she used a local laundromat. Lee did not

even have air conditioning in her home, nor a cell phone, or a computer. Lee would donate

money to her church, and that is about all she spent her money on besides a couple of apartments

around the country, she lived an extremely frugal life. It is just strange to look at how she lived,

considering how much money she made off her novels (Readers Digest).

In conclusion, Lee was a very talented author. Besides being very creative, Lee cared

about the well-being of everyone around her, and just wanted everyone to have the same justice

all around. From growing up in a small town in Alabama, to becoming a world-renowned author,

it shows it doesnt matter where you come from, its what you decide to make of yourself. Lee

had great friends and family, which she based characters off of in her novels. This research

showed how Lee carried herself through life, and how she decided to act. This research also

shows what accomplishments she achieved in her lifetime, such as winning the Pulitzer Prize, yet

declined her celebrity status along the way.

 Works Cited Page

"Harper Lee." A&E Networks Television, 23 Feb. 2016. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

To Kill a Mockingbird. Eureka! Web. 2 May 2017.

Grimes, William. "Harper Lee, Author of 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' Dies at 89." The New York

Times. The New York Times, 19 Feb. 2016. Web. 2 May 2017.

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Harper Lee: Childhood." Shmoop. Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008.

Web. 12 May 2017.

Chen, Daryl. "19 Facts About Harper Lee and 'To Kill a Mockingbird' | Reader's Digest."

Reader's Digest. Reader's Digest, 15 Apr. 2016. Web. 12 May 2017.

Lynch, John. "Harper Lee's 'Go Set a Watchman' Sells a Record-breaking 1.1 Million Copies."

Business Insider. Business Insider, 21 July 2015. Web. 12 May 2017.

"Harper Lee Net Worth." Celebrity Net Worth. N.p., 05 Dec. 2016. Web. 12 May 2017.