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Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926. She will go on to write To Kill a Mockingbird, her one and only novel.
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Lee enrolled and attended at an all women's college called Huntingdon. She was only there for a year before transferring.
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Harper Lee left Huntingdon and went to the University of Alabama, where she studied law. As it turns out, she didn't like law very much.
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Harper Lee quit law school to move to New York City to become a writer
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Harper Lee got a job with Eastern Air Lines and the British Overseas Airways Corporation. During these years, she didn't really write a lot as she was busy with her job.
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Harper Lee's friends saved money so they could buy her a year off work so she can work on her book. She was able to support herself with her writing after that.
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When Harper Lee was writing one day, she became so angry with her book that she threw it out the window. Her editor, Tay Hohoff made her go outside and get it as soon as she called him.
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To Kill a Mockingbird finally came out, published by J.B. Lippincott Company. People loved it immediately.
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At age 35, Nelle Harper Lee was presented the Pulitzer Prize for her outstanding novel.
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To Kill a Mockingbird was made into a movie during the winter of 1962. Harper Lee was pleased, saying it was "one of the best translations of a book to film ever made." It was directed by Horton Foote.
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The Library Journal says To Kill a Mockingbird was the best novel of the 20th century
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President George W. Bush awarded Harper Lee with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the White House saying it was "At a critical moment in our history, her beautiful book, To Kill a Mockingbird, helped focus the nation on the turbulent struggle for equality."
