Harper Lee’s parents chose her middle name, Harper, to honour paediatrician Dr William W. Harper, who had saved the life of her sister Louise. Her first name, Nelle, was her grandmother’s name spelled backwards and the name she used, whereas Harper Lee was primarily her pen name. [1]
Harper Lee was an American author best known for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which was published in 1960 and won the Pulitzer Prize the following year.
Nelle Harper Lee was born on 28 April 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama, the youngest of four children of Amasa Coleman Lee, a lawyer and state senator, and his wife, Frances (née Finch). She was raised in the deep south during a time of racial tension and segregation. Despite this, Lee had a happy childhood and was encouraged to read and write from a young age. Her mother was an avid reader, and Lee was known to have spent many hours reading books in her local small public library. She was a tomboy who preferred to spend her time outdoors. However, she was also an excellent student and known to be highly intelligent. She graduated from high school in 1944 and went on to attend Huntingdon College in Alabama. However, she did not finish her degree and instead moved to New York City, to pursue a career in writing, taking jobs in a bookstore, and an airline reservation agent so she could write in her spare time.
Friends gave Lee the extraordinary gift of a year’s wages which enabled her to focus solely on her writing. She produced her first novel, “Go Set a Watchman,” which was extensively revised and rewritten to become To Kill a Mockingbird. The book was published in 1960 and became an instant success, winning the Pulitzer Prize the following year and was made into a successful film in 1962.
Despite her success Lee only published one other novel during her lifetime, Go Set a Watchman, in 2015. She lived a quiet life in Monroeville, Alabama, and passed away on 19 February 2016, at the age of 89.