LEE, Harper

“I have said what I wanted to say and I will not say it again."

Nelle Harper Lee’s first novel was also to be the last one she completed. To Kill a Mockingbird published in 1960, enjoyed phenomenal success, winning her the Pulizter Prize for Literature the following year.  The film adaptation in 1962 won Gregory Peck an Oscar. Lee was overwhelmed by her achievement and later wrote “I never expected any sort of success with ‘Mockingbird’ … I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me some encouragement.” Uncomfortable in the limelight, she turned her back on speaking in public and gave very few interviews. She started writing two other books, but didn’t finish either of them.

‘Mockingbird’ was set in America’s Deep South and dealt with rape and racism. Lee was well equipped to describe the tension of the area as she was brought up in Alabama and her father was a lawyer who defended (unsuccessfully) a black father and son charged with murder.

Her other main contribution to literature was to help her close friend and fellow successful author Truman Capote in research for his novel In Cold Blood, published in 1966.

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