million copies. Since its publication in 1960, "Mockingbird" as sold more than 40 million copies.
The National Council of Teachers of English in 1988, reported that 74% of
all secondary schools in the nation taught it. In the 1980s the Library Journal declared it
the best novel of the 20th Century. Published in July 1960, it became a selection for Book-of-
the-Month Club, The Literary Guild, & the Reader's Digest condensed it; and, the book maintained
a spot on the best-seller list for 88 weeks. The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was awarded in 1961.
Her friendship with childhood friend Truman Capote cooled at this point of success.
Harper Lee wrote about and lived in Monroeville in Alabama, population 6,300. Nelle
Harper Lee was born April 28, 1926, the youngest of 4 children. Her father was a prominent
lawyer and her mother was emotionally distant. She attended Huntingdon College, a
local Methodist school for women, contributing articles to the campus newspaper.
After one year, Harper Lee transferred to the University of Alabama to study law; and
as a student she wrote a column called Caustic Comments for Crimson White, the
campus newspaper. Harper Lee left the University of Alabama 6 months short of completing
her law degree. Her older sister took over their father's law practice.
Following her senior year, Harper Lee attended Oxford University as part of a student -
exchange program. Upon her return she relocated to New York to become a writer,
arriving in Manhattan in 1949. She worked as a airlines reservations agent during the day
and at night she wrote on a desk made from a door.
One Christmas in 1956, friends Michael and Joy Brown who believed in her writing skills gave
her a generous gift (and thus the world!) - a check equal to a year's salary. "You have one year off
from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas." Joy Brown stated "I remember
her wit and laughter; she laughed a lot. she was also one of the most observant people
you ever met, and she did not suffer fools, by any means."
After submitting
a portfolio of short stories, her agent suggested she try writing a novel. Two months later
she submitted the first 50 pages of a manuscript called "Go Set a Watchman." The story
unfolded around a small town lawyer who stands guard outside a jail to protect his client from
an angry mob. The agent suggested a name change to "Atticus," and later as the book evolved
to "To Kill a Mockingbird." Editors felt that the manuscript read like a string of
stories, not a novel, and encouraged a revision. "Go Set a Watchman" began as an
initial draft of "To Kill a Mockingbird," where Harper Lee took scenes from Scout's
childhood & developed them into a separate book. She moved the story backwards by
2 decades, focusing on Scout's girlhood, evoking in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's words,
the universal "mysteries of childhood." "I was a first-time writer, and I did
what I was told," Harper Lee wrote in a statement issued in 2015 by her publisher.
Go Set a Watchman was published in 2015. the story of Atticus and Scout 20 years later.
In a review for the New York Times by MIchiko Kakutani: "Scout is shocked to find, during
her trip home, that her beloved father, who taught her everything she knows about fairness
and compassion, has been affiliating with raving anti-integrationist, anti-black crazies,
and the reader shares her horror and confusion."
Harper Lee never married and had no children. She divided her time between Monroeville
and Manhattan (where she maintained an apartment), until her stroke in 2007. Harper Lee
declared her ambition to be "the Jane Austen of South Alabama." She once commented,
"Writing is the hardest thing in the world...but writing is the only thing that has made
me completely happy." Lee stopped giving interviews after 1964.
Harper Lee enjoyed
writing, playing golf and attended the local Methodist Church (build in part from her royalties.)
She occasionally dropped in on local English classes to attend To Kill a Mockingbird discussions.
She lived with her sister Alice in Monroeville. Alice practiced law into her 90s and died at
age 103 in 2014. Nelle Harper Lee died at age 89, leaving the world a better place because
of her contributions. Thank You Nelle Harper Lee!
Come join the discussion on May 4. Come watch the movie on May 11 with a short
discussion to follow.....