A spokeswoman for Monroeville, Alabama, where Lee was
born and spent her final years living in seclusion, confirmed local media
reports of her death, saying: “She did pass away.”
“To Kill a Mockingbird” is
considered one of the great classics of 20th century American literature, and
is standard reading in classrooms across the world.
Published in 1960 and drawn
from Lee’s own experiences as a child, it came to define racial injustice in
the Depression-era South.
It tells the story of a black
man wrongly accused of raping a white woman and the courageous lawyer, Atticus
Finch, who defies his community to defend him.
Drawn from Lee‘s
experiences as a child, the novel sold 30 million copies and won huge critical
acclaim for Lee, thrusting her into the limelight amid an avalanche of
publicity.
Her fame was sealed when the
novel was adapted into a Hollywood film that won three Academy Awards in 1963,
including an Oscar for leading man Gregory Peck.
“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,” said Harper Collins
president Michael Morrison.
“She lived her life the way she
wanted to — in private — surrounded by books and the people who loved her,” he
added.
In one rare
insight, Lee admitted in 1964 she had been completely caught off
guard by being catapulted into the nation’s consciousness by her novel.
“I hoped for a little, but I
got rather a whole lot and in some ways this was just about as frightening as
the quick, merciful death I’d expected,” she said.
For decades she stayed out of
the public eye, claiming to have said all she wanted in “Mockingbird” and
vowing never to publish another book.
But in 2015, she upended the
literary world by publishing the unedited manuscript of “Go Set a Watchman” —
her first novel written in the 1950s which was essentially a first draft of
“Mockingbird.”
The manuscript was an instant
popular bestseller but it was mauled by critics, and its release sparked torrid
speculation that the author, who suffered a stroke in 2007, was not of sound
mind.
Lee’s London-based agent Andrew
Nurnberg said Friday it had been “an utter delight” and an “extraordinary
privilege” to know her.
“When I saw her just six weeks
ago, she was full of life, her mind and mischievous wit as sharp as ever,” he
said. “We have lost a great writer, a great friend and a beacon of integrity.”
Born Nelle Harper Lee in April
1926, she was the youngest of four children. Her father was a lawyer and a
direct descendant of Civil War general Robert E. Lee.
Lee grew up during the Great
Depression in a remote village where the few available books provided the only
entertainment. She never married, and books remained forever her first love.
Known as a tomboy as a child,
she counted author Truman Capote among her childhood friends — and often stood
up for him when he was picked on as a sissy. She would later work as an
assistant on Capote’s novel “In Cold Blood,” which examined a multiple killing
in Kansas, and was dedicated to Lee.
A precocious child, Lee learned
to read early and had devoured all kinds of literature by the time she started
school.
She also an early flair for writing even though her family hoped she
would follow her father into law.
After a spell as an exchange
student at Oxford University in England, she quit law school at The University
of Alabama and headed for New York in 1949 to follow her dream of being a
writer.
She worked for a while as an
airline reservation clerk, until one Christmas when friends gave her enough
money to live for a year without working so she could concentrate on writing.
Written before “Mockingbird,”
the draft she released last year as “Watchman” tells a similar tale of
small-town racism but recounted from a different perspective.
While her famous novel is told
through the eyes of Finch’s young daughter, Scout, “Watchman” is narrated from
perspective of a grown-up Scout living in New York and coming home to the South
for a troubled visit.
But critics pointed to a number
of troubling inconsistencies between the two — most notably that the hero Finch
is portrayed in the manuscript as a man who harbors racist opinions.
The manuscript’s release sparked
a furious backlash — partly because so little was known of Lee, who lived in a
nursing home with a strictly controlled visitor list and who refused any
request for interviews.
She made a rare public
appearance in 2007, when then-president George W. Bush awarded her the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civil honor.
She also quietly attended
annual award ceremonies held by The University of Alabama for a writing contest
about her book.
Her sister, Alice, who was her
gatekeeper until her death aged 103 in 2014, explained in 2002 why her sister
never seemed to make headway with a new book.
“I’ll put it this way. When you
have hit the pinnacle, how would you feel about writing more? Would you feel
like you’re competing with yourself?”
