Harper Lee was born in 1926 in Alabama and grew up in Monroeville as the youngest of four children. She had a lawyer father and a mother who suffered from mental illness. Lee attended all-female Huntingdon College and then the University of Alabama Law School, where she became editor of the school magazine. In 1956, she moved to New York to pursue a career as a writer and published her famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. Since then, Lee has lived a very private life and published nothing else except for a few short essays.

2. Early life.

3. Born on April 28, 1926

4. Amasa Coleman
Lee, former
newspaper
editor and
lawyer

5. Frances Finch Lee
Suffered from mental illness, rarely leaved
the house

6. The youngest of
four children,
she grew up as a
tomboy

7. Truman
Capote`was one of
her childhood
friend

8. Went to all-female
Huntingdon College in
Montgomery

10. Went to University
of Alabama in
Tuscaloosa,
accepted into its
Law School

12. Became the editor
of the school
magazine
Rammer Jammer

13. Rise to fame.

14. Came to New
York in 1956
to be a writer

15. Completed in 1957

16. Revised version
published in 1960

17. Initial responses were mixed...

18. ...but in 1961, it won the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

19. Does Harper Lee’s childhood
sound familiar to you?

20. Harper Lee
≈
Scout

21. From
Alabama

22. Youngest
child

23. Tomboy

24. Lawyer
father

26. After To Kill a Mockingbird.

27. On November 5, 2007, George W. Bush
presented Lee with the Presidential
Medal of Freedom. This is the highest
civilian award in the United States.

28. Since publication of To Kill a
Mockingbird, Lee has granted almost
no requests for interviews or public
appearances.

29. With the
exception of a
few short
essays, she has
published
nothing further.

30. Lee continues to live
a quiet, private life
in New York City and
Monroeville.