Farewell Harper Lee
American Novelist
1926-2016
Harper Lee was considered by many to be a literary icon. Her controversial novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961. For decades, the book was her first and only publication and was later turned into an Academy Award-winning film starring Gregory Peck. Harper stopped making public appearances and giving interviews shortly after the novel's release. She was presented with a number of honorary degrees and awards in her later years, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in 2007. Lee's second novel, Go Set a Watchman, was published in July 2015. Lee completed the novel--written from the perspective of an adult Scout Finch looking back at events in her childhood--in the 1950s. Lee set the manuscript aside at the advice of an agent to instead write To Kill A Mockingbird.
