Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28 1926 in Monroeville Alabama, a city of about 7,000 people in Monroe County, which has about 24,000 people. Monroeville is in southwest Alabama, about halfway between Montgomery and Mobile.
She is the youngest of four children of Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Finch Lee. Harper Lee attended Huntingdon College 1944-45, studied law at University of Alabama 1945-49, and studied one year at Oxford University. In the 1950s she worked as a reservation clerk with Eastern Air Lines and BOAC in New York City.
In order to concentrate on writing Harper Lee gave up her position with the airline and moved into a cold-water apartment with makeshift furniture. Her father's sudden illness forced her to divide her time between New York and Monroeville, a practice she has continued.
In 1957 Miss Lee submitted the manuscript of her novel to the J. B. Lippincott Company. She was told that her novel consisted of a series of short stories strung together, and she was urged to re-write it. For the next two and a half years she re-worked the manuscript with the help of her editor, Tay Hohoff, and in 1960 To Kill a Mockingbird was published, her only published book. On May 29 1961 the Alabama Legislature passed a resolution to congratulate Miss Lee on her success. That year she had two articles published: Love--In Other Words in Vogue, and Christmas To Me in McCalls. "Christmas To Me" is the story of Harper Lee receiving the gift of a year's time for writing from friends. When Children Discover America was published in 1965.
In June of 1966, Harper Lee was one of two persons named by President Johnson to the National Council of Arts. Also named to the 26 member council was artist Richard Diebenkorn Jr.
In the same year, on November 28th, Truman Capote held his fabulous and flawless Black and White Dance in honour of Katherine Graham. In Cold Blood had been published in January, with its dedication to Jack Dunphy and Harper Lee. The 480 invitations included one to her.
