Harper Lee: US author of To Kill a Mockingbird dies aged 89

Harper Lee, the reclusive author of To Kill a Mockingbird, has died at the age of 89.

The news was first confirmed by the mayor’s office in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama.

The novelist was born Nelle Harper Lee on 28 April 1926.

In 1960, she published To Kill a Mockingbird, a huge critical and commercial success which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. A sequel Go Set a Watchman, was published in 2015.

To Kill a Mockingbird sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.

Lee was born 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She was the youngest of four children of lawyer Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee.

She was a guardedly private person, respected and protected by residents of her town, rarely giving interviews.

Lee’s literary agent Andrew Nurnberg said: “Knowing Nelle these past few years has been not just an utter delight but an extraordinary privilege.

“When I saw her just six weeks ago, she was full of life, her mind and mischievous wit as sharp as ever. She was quoting Thomas More and setting me straight on Tudor history. We have lost a great writer, a great friend and a beacon of integrity.”

Spencer Madrie, owner of Ol’ Curiosities and Book Shoppe, a small, independent book store in Lee’s hometown that focuses largely on Lee’s works, said: “The world has lost a brilliant mind and a great writer.”

Image copyrightReuters

“We will remember Harper Lee for her candour, her talent, and the truths she gave the world, perhaps before the world was ready. We are grateful to have had a connection to an author who offered so much.

“There will always be something missing from Monroeville and the world at large in the absence of Harper Lee.”

Michael Morrison, the head of HarperCollins US said in a statement: “The world knows Harper Lee was a brilliant writer, but what many don’t know is that she was an extraordinary woman of great joyfulness, humility and kindness.

“She lived her life the way she wanted to – in private – surrounded by books and the people who loved her. I will always cherish the time I spent with her.”

Tom Weldon, CEO of Penguin Random House – which published Lee’s novels in the UK – said: “We are honoured to have been Harper Lee’s publisher and so saddened to hear of her passing. She was an extraordinary writer and readers around the world will always be thankful for her legacy.”

The author Malorie Blackman posted “Harper Lee R.I.P.” on her Twitter account.

Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted: “Rest in peace, Harper Lee. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

The manuscript for the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set A Watchman was discovered and published in 2015.

Many bookshops remained open all night to cope with demand on the day of the novel’s release last July.

The book is set 20 years after the events of To Kill a Mockingbird – although Lee actually wrote Go Set a Watchman first.

Watchman contains some of the same characters as Mockingbird, including Scout and her father Atticus Finch.

The publication proved controversial as early reviewers noted that Atticus expresses racist views in the story.

Image copyrightRex Features

To Kill a Mockingbird – at a glance

In the small fictional town of Maycomb in the depression-ravaged American South, a black man named Tom Robinson is falsely accused of raping a white woman.

A lawyer named Atticus Finch defends Robinson in court. The frenzy stirred up by the case and her father’s quest for justice are seen through the eyes of Finch’s six-year-old daughter Scout.

The book explores issues of race, class and the loss of innocence.

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” – Atticus Finch to Scout.

“It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.” – Scout Finch.

In 1962, it was made into a film starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and Mary Badham as Scout.

It was adapted for the big screen by Horton Foote and earned Peck an Oscar for Best Actor.

The novel is currently being adapted for the stage.

 
[Source:- BBC]