Harper Lee

Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama in 1926. As a child, she was a tomboy and best friends with a neighbor who would also become a famous author, Truman Capote. Lee became interested in literature in high school and attended the all-female Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama. Lee obtained a literary agent in 1956 and wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel, which dealt with issues of racism Lee had observed herself as a child, was published in 1960 and became an instant bestseller, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. Lee also assisted Truman Capote in researching his book In Cold Blood, but she never published another novel of her own.