Harper Lee

1 book analyzed

Biography

Nelle Harper Lee (1926-2016) was born in Monroeville, Alabama — the model for Maycomb. Her father, Amasa Coleman Lee, was a lawyer who served in the Alabama State Legislature and defended two Black men in a murder trial — a case he lost. The men were hanged. Lee studied law at the University of Alabama but left for New York City in 1949 without finishing her degree, intending to become a writer. Her childhood friend and neighbor was Truman Capote, the model for Dill Harris. She helped Capote research In Cold Blood, traveling to Kansas with him in 1959-60, the same period she was finishing Mockingbird. She published one novel. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. She published nothing more for 55 years, then Go Set a Watchman appeared in 2015 (the novel's controversial rough draft, in which Atticus is depicted as a segregationist) — raising questions about memory, revision, and which version of a person is 'real.'

Harper Lee at a glance

Works analyzed
1
Publication span
1960
Total pages
281
AP Lit appearances
18
Recurring themes
racejusticeinnocenceclasscourageempathycoming-of-age
Genres
novelcoming-of-agesocial-commentarylegal-drama

Works

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

1960 · 281 pages · ★★☆☆☆ Moderate

The most-taught novel in American schools — and the most quietly devastating indictment of what justice looks like when the system works exactly as designed.