Harper Lee

Harper Lee

Nelle Harper Lee (born April 28, 1926) is an American author known for her 1961 Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which deals with the issues of racism that were observed by the author as a child in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. Despite being Lee's only published book, it led to her being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature. Lee has also been the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, but has always declined to make a speech.

Other significant contributions include assisting her close friend Truman Capote in his research for the book In Cold Blood.

Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books.

—Harper Lee

Read more about Harper Lee:  Fictional Portrayals, Writings

Famous quotes containing the words harper lee, harper and/or lee:

    Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.
    Harper Lee (b. 1926)

    The thanksgiving of the old Jew, “Lord, I thank Thee that Thou didst not make me a woman,” doubtless came from a careful review of the situation. Like all of us, he had fortitude enough to bear his neighbors’ afflictions.
    Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)

    To be able to see every side of every question;
    To be on every side, to be everything, to be nothing long;
    To pervert truth, to ride it for a purpose,

    To use great feelings and passions of the human family
    For base designs, for cunning ends;
    —Edgar Lee Masters (1869–1950)