Harper Lee

My needs are simple: paper, pen, and privacy.

-Harper Lee

Harper Lee wrote one of the most read American Literature novels ever. To Kill a Mockingbird is assigned by more high school teachers than almost any other book. Over 10,000 copies are still sold every year. To kill a Mockingbird is a classic that captures life in a small southern town.

Childhood

“Get off of him!” Nelle screamed, “Get off!”. Though she was only seven years old, Nelle Harper Lee pulled the older boys off of her best friend and next door neighbor, Truman Capote. He was covered in sand, and crying. “Come on,” she pulled him to his feet. The older boys had been playing a rough game of ‘Hot Grease’ in the sand-bed of the Monroe County Elementary School playground in Monroeville, Alabama. Truman had decided to join the game in hopes of getting some attention. The boys had him on the ground in seconds. That’s when Nelle had to come to his rescue. Little Nelle Harper Lee was a “fearsome stomach-puncher, foot-stomper and hair-puller, who ‘could talk mean like a boy’” (Shields 2).

Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926 to A.C. and Frances Lee. Nelle’s father, A. C. Lee was a self-taught lawyer, and her mother “bought cotton, which was a polite way of saying nothing” (Lee 1).  Nelle was given the name of her maternal grandmother, Ellen, spelled backwards. She went by Nelle, but because people mispronounced her name for Nellie she published To Kill a Mockingbird under her middle name. She was the youngest of four children, Alice (1911), Frances Louise (1916), and Edwin (1920). “It might have felt to Nelle like she had been born into a family of grown ups” (Madden 30).

Nelle Harper Lee had a good childhood overall. She spent her days playing with Truman and listening to her brother Edwins stories. However in 1932 Truman moved to New York with his mother and new stepfather. He visited in the summers.

A Writer’s Life for Me

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what” (Lee 149)

Nelle had a passion for writing from a young age. When she was old enough to write her father gave her and Truman a black Underwood No. 5 typewriter. Nelle preferred making up stories and telling them. Truman, however convinced her to write them down, as that is what real writers do.

Nelle’s father and her sister Alice were both lawyers, so it made sense for Nelle to follow in their footsteps. While attending the University of Alabama, Nelle joined the campus newspaper. She wrote a column entitled “Caustic Comment”.  She later became the editor of the college humor magazine. In a 1947 interview for the campus paper Nelle said that she intended to spend her future as a lawyer in her home town of Monroeville. When asked about her writing aspirations she said “I shall probably write a book some day. They all do” (The Crimson White 1).

In the summer of 1948 Nelle was an exchange student at Oxford University. She fell in love with England. When she returned for her last year of law school, she realized that her heart did not want to be a lawyer. “She knew she wouldn’t be happy hanging a sign up on the law office building that said A. C. Lee and Daughters” (Madden 92). At 23 Nelle quit law school and moved to New York to become a writer. Her family did not approve.

Nelle worked at a publishing company and a bookstore to pay for her tiny apartment. The pay wasn’t enough to live in New York, so in 1950 she got a job working for British Overseas Air Corporation as a reference clerk. “She lived frugally, saving every penny for rent, groceries, cigarettes, pencils, paper, and typewriter ribbon” (Madden 100).

On June 2, 1951, Nelle’s mother died in a hospital in Selma. The Lee family was hurt, but not nearly as sad as they were six weeks later when they got the news of  her brother Edwin’s death. The loss of Nelle’s mother had been painful, but it had been coming for a while. Edwin’s death was devastating. “After these terrible losses, she began writing fragments of what would later become To Kill a Mockingbird, and the loving way she created the character of Jem was perhaps a way of keeping a little part of her brother with her” (Madden 101).

After eight years of living in New York, Nelle was finally ready to submit her short stories to a literary agent. The agent liked one of her stories, but suggested she write a novel. After her meeting with the agent she started working on a novel, but it was a struggle to keep a full time job and write. However on Christmas morning 1957, she received a tremendous gift. Her friends, Michael and Joy Brown, had recently come into some money. They gave her enough money to live on for a year so she could pursue her writing.

After many title changes and thoughts of quitting, Nelle was two-years into her first novel when it happened. She couldn’t take anymore. “It felt as if she’d been living in the tiny cold-water flat forever. She couldn't see the end of her book and could hardly stand to look at it another second” (Madden 108). In a panic, she threw her entire manuscript out the window into the snow. Realizing what she had done, she ran outside to save it. It was then that she decided that she had to finish the book for her agent, the Browns, her editor, her English teacher, and Truman who had encouraged her to write since they were kids. In the late spring of 1959 Nelle turned in her final draft. To Kill a Mockingbird was to be published in July of the following year.

To Kill a Mockingbird

"Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (Lee 103)

When July of 1960 rolled around, Nelle had no idea what was coming to her. Her editor warned her not to be disappointed. To Kill a Mockingbird  might only sell 2,000 only copies, which was average for a first book. However, it hit the New YOrk best seller list and stayed there for 88 weeks. By September it was selling over 10,000 copies a week. “[Nelle] was immediately swept up in a wave of unexpected publicity” (Madden 1). She tried to answer all of her fan mail, but when she received 68 letters in one day she gave up.

Nelle never published a second novel. She tried and she got close, but when she was about to finish her agent died. It was he who told her to write a novel in the first place. Only four years later, her editor and close friend passed away. With both of them gone she didn’t have the passion to finish. “Nelle’s major support beams in both her personal and writing life had vanished” (Madden 166)

Although Nelle has claimed that To Kill a Mockingbird is not autobiographical there are some major similarities between her life and Scouts. Like Nelle, Scout lives in a small Alabama town. Scout is an independent, and outspoken lady like Nelle. Alice Lee once said that her little sister “isn’t much of a conformist” (Shields 2), neither is Scout. Atticus and Nelle’s father, A. C. are very similar. Nelle’s father defended black men in cases similar to that of Tom Robinson. The primary female figures in both Scout and Nelle’s lives were their black nannies. Scout’s mother died when she was two, and Nelle’s mother preferred spending her time on the crossword in the paper than with her children.

Nelle Harper Lee is now 87 years old, but her book is still loved by many. In 2006 British librarians ranked To Kill a Mockingbird No. 1 on the list of books to read before you die. To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic that captures the story of life through a child’s eyes.

Works Cited

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Harper, 2010. Print.

Shields, Charles J. I Am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee. New York: Henry Holt and,

2008. Print.

"To Kill a Mockingbird." The Big Read. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Jan. 2014.

To Kill a Mockingbird. Dir. Robert Mulligan. By Horton Foote. Perf. Gregory Peck, Mary

Badham, and Phillip Alford. Universal-International, 1962. DVD.