Harper Lee, 'To Kill A Mockingbird' Author, Dead At 89

Harper Lee, the reclusive author of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” a hallmark of American literature that told a story of racial tensions in the Depression-era South, died Thursday night, her publisher confirmed Friday. She was 89.

“Mockingbird” was released in 1960 and remained her only published book for more than 50 years. Her second novel, “Go Set A Watchman,” a sequel to “Mockingbird,” was released in July 2015 amid controversy about how much input she had in its publishing.

Nelle Harper Lee grew up in the Alabama town of Monroeville, which was the inspiration for the fictional town of Maycomb, where “Mockingbird” took place. She attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery and later transferred to the University of Alabama.

She moved to New York City, where she wrote the manuscript for “Mockingbird.” Lee eventually moved back to Monroeville, where she rarely granted interviews and shied away from appearances of any kind.

“Mockingbird” is considered one of the most important and most-read pieces of American literature ever.

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The novel tells the story of Scout Finch and her father, Atticus, a lawyer called to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman in rural Alabama during the Great Depression. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961 and has been widely praised as a portrait of small-town life and racial tolerance in the deeply segregated South as well as a story of lost innocence.

“’To Kill a Mockingbird’ has influenced the character of our country for the better,” President George W. Bush said when he awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007. “It’s been a gift to the entire world. As a model of good writing and humane sensibility, this book will be read and studied forever.”

The novel has sold more than 40 million copies since it was published.

A movie adaptation starred Gregory Peck as Atticus and Mary Badham as Scout. It won three Academy Awards and three Golden Globes and was rated the No. 25 film of all time by the American Film Institute in 2007.

“The world knows Harper Lee was a brilliant writer but what many don’t know is that she was an extraordinary woman of great joyfulness, humility and kindness,” Michael Morrison, President and Publisher of HarperCollins, said in a statement. “She lived her life the way she wanted to — in private — surrounded by books and the people who loved her. I will always cherish the time I spent with her.”

Lee was rarely seen or heard from after “Mockingbird’s” release and smashing success, only making appearances when she won awards or gave lectures on college campuses.

She had a special place in her heart for students, according to Chip Cooper, a photographer in Alabama whose work Lee admired. Cooper captured Lee several times during his career and got to know her when she would come to the University of Alabama’s campus for lectures and book signings.

“She was an extremely private person, and she stayed out of the limelight,” Cooper told Patch. “But when I watched her with students, there was a twinkle in her eye. There wasn’t a thought of trying to get through the 50 students. As she was signing autographs, she spent time with each kid. And I didn’t see that necessarily with the adults in the crowd. And that I remember.”

In her first lecture at the university that Lee attended, he recalled creeping up to the podium where she was seated, camera in hand, and snapping Lee.

Lee stopped speaking, stood up and looked at him.

“Who are you?” she said.

“I’m Chip Cooper,” he replied.

“I thought that was you,” she said. “I’m Nelle Lee.”

“It left me speechless,” he said. ”It was a great honor.”

Lee contended for much of her post-Mockingbird life that it would be the only novel she would ever write.

“Two reasons: One, I wouldn’t go through the pressure and publicity I went through with ’To Kill A Mockingbird’ for any amount of money,” she reportedly once told the Rev. Dr. Thomas Lane Butts. “Second, I have said what I wanted to say and I will not say it again.”

But Lee’s literary agent in 2014 found a manuscript for “Watchman,” and in February 2015 Harper Collins announced it would be published as Lee’s second novel.

Many people questioned whether Lee was in the right mind to approve the novel’s publishing and whether she wanted it to be shared with the world.

It was released on July 14, 2015 and set a record for one-day adult novel sales.

“One of the great writers of all time,” Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia U.S. Congressman who was born in Alabama, tweeted Friday. “Harper Lee laid bare the soul of America and her work will continue to educate for generations.”

Image via Wikimedia Commons