Lee moved to New York City in 1949 to pursue a career in writing, and eight years later, she submitted the manuscript to a publisher. Her publisher, HarperCollins, also confirmed the news to NPR.
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Her death comes months after she released her long-awaited second novel, Go Set A Watchman, published 55 years after her first and only book until then.
To Kill A Mockingbird sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. She was the youngest of four children of lawyer Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee.
The state of Alabama launched an investigation to determine if Lee was competent to consent to the publication of Go Set a Watchman, and found claims that she was coerced were unfounded. After graduating high school, she attended Huntingdon College before transferring to the University of Alabama where she studied law, but didn’t complete a degree.
The book was adapted into a 1962 film starring Gregory Peck; the movie won three Oscars.
“I re-read #tokillamockingbird during my trial”.
Lee made headlines last year, on the news that a companion to her beloved novel would be coming out some 55 years after To Kill A Mockingbird was first published in 1960. She acknowledged she could not top the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Mockingbird” but friends said she had worked for years on at least two other books before abandoning them. She had been living in an assisted living facility since 2007, when she suffered a stroke. He also said Lee’s contribution to Capote’s “In Cold Blood” was greater than believed.
Lee’s sister, Alice, qualified as a lawyer, and later took over their father’s practice.
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“Watchman” was written before “Mockingbird“, but was set 20 years later, using the same location and numerous same characters. “I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years”.
