Biography of Lee, Harper (1926-2016)

Biography of Lee, Harper (1926-2016)
A portrait of the author of one of America's most beloved novels — her life, her world, and the story she told.
Early Life and Childhood
Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, to Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee.
Harper Lee grew up in the small southwestern Alabama town of Monroeville. Her father, a former newspaper editor and proprietor, was a lawyer who also served on the state legislature (1926-38). As a child, Lee was a tomboy and a precocious reader, and she enjoyed the friendship of her schoolmate and neighbor, the young Truman Capote, who provided the basis of the character of Dill in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
The Scottsboro Trials
Lee was only five years old when, in April 1931 in the small Alabama town of Scottsboro, the first trials began with regard to the purported rapes of two white women by nine young black men. The defendants, who were nearly lynched before being brought to court, were not provided with the services of a lawyer until the first day of trial.
Despite medical testimony that the women had not been raped, the all-white jury found the men guilty of the crime and sentenced all but the youngest, a twelve-year-old boy, to death. Six years of subsequent trials saw most of these convictions repealed and all but one of the men freed or paroled.
The Scottsboro case left a deep impression on the young Lee, who would use it later as the rough basis for the events in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Education and Early Career
1
1944–45
Studied at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama
2
1945–49
Pursued a law degree at the University of Alabama, with one year at Oxford University, England
3
Late 1950s
Worked as a reservation clerk for Eastern Airlines in New York City before resolving to devote herself to writing
4
1959
Worked in Holcombe, Kansas, as a research assistant for Truman Capote's novel In Cold Blood
Lee lived a frugal lifestyle, traveling between her cold-water-only apartment in New York and her family home in Alabama to care for her ailing father. Ever since the first days of their childhood friendship, Capote and Lee remained close friends.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Published 1960
After a two-year period of revising and rewriting under the guidance of editor Tay Hohoff of J. B. Lippincott Company
Pulitzer Prize 1961
Won the Pulitzer Prize despite mixed critical reviews, becoming one of the most celebrated American novels
15 Million+ Copies
Highly popular worldwide; adapted into a successful film in 1962 starring Gregory Peck as Atticus
Though in composing the novel she delved into her own experiences as a child in Monroeville, Lee intended that the book impart the sense of any small town in the Deep South, as well as the universal characteristics of human beings.
Later Life and Legacy
President Johnson named Lee to the National Council of Arts in June 1966, and since then she has received numerous honorary doctorates. She continues to live in New York and Monroeville but prefers a relatively private existence, granting few interviews and giving few speeches.
She has published only a few short essays since her debut:
"Love--In Other Words" in Vogue, 1961
"Christmas to Me" in McCall's, 1961
"When Children Discover America" in McCall's, 1965
About To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird during a very tense time racially in her home state of Alabama. The South was still segregated, forcing blacks to use separate facilities apart from those used by whites, in almost every aspect of society.
The Civil Rights Movement began to pick up steam when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. Following her bold defiance, Martin Luther King, Jr., became the leader of the movement, and the issue began to gain serious national attention.
Clearly, a prime subject of To Kill a Mockingbird — namely the injustice of racism and inequality in the American South — was highly relevant at the time of its publication.
Historical Setting and Civil Rights Context
Interestingly, Harper Lee decided to set the novel in the Depression era of the 1930s. The main character, Scout, is based on Lee's own childhood, and Dill is most likely based on her childhood friend and neighbor, Truman Capote.
By placing her novel in the 1930s, Lee provided her readers with a historical background for current events of the time, and in doing so she exposed the deeply rooted history of the civil rights struggle in the South.
Scout's Coming-of-Age Story
In addition to a biting analysis of race relations, To Kill A Mockingbird is also a story about Scout's maturation. Coming-of-age stories are also known as members of the genre Bildungsroman, which tends to depict main characters who take large steps in personal growth due to life lessons or specific trauma.
Social Inequality
Scout Finch works to come to terms with the facts of her society, including social and racial inequality in 1930s Alabama.
Gender Expectations
Scout is a tomboy who resents efforts to alter her behavior. Women in the South were expected to be delicate and dainty — concepts Scout abhors. Women were not even allowed to serve on juries in Maycomb.
Role Models
Miss Maudie is a strong role model for Scout in that she also defies some of their society's expectations and maintains her individuality as a Southern woman.
Yielding to Pressure
But Scout eventually succumbs — in her own way — to social pressure, marking the bittersweet arc of her coming-of-age journey.
Themes of Bravery and Humanity
The novel's characters are forced to examine the world — or at least the town — in which they live.
Through observing their society and interacting with people such as Tom Robinson and Boo Radley, they come to understand more about true bravery, cowardice, and humanity.