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Harper Lee, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ author, has died at 89

Monroeville Mayor Mike Kennedy also confirmed the news to WHNT.

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The death of Lee has given rise to speculation that yet more of her work could be published, reports Harriet Alexander in NY. Her passing was unexpected.

Last year, Harper Lee published her second book, “Go Set A Watchman”.

In 2007, President George W. Bush presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to Harper Lee in a White House ceremony, marking a rare public appearance for the author. It featured a grown-up Scout and elderly Atticus. Widely regarded as the inspiration for To Kill a Mockingbird’s setting, the fictional “tired old town” of Maycomb, Alabama, Lee lived most of her years quietly in her hometown.

Lee continued, “I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told”. She was involved in numerous legal disputes over the rights to her book and denied she had cooperated with the biography “The Mockingbird Next Door: Life With Harper Lee”, by Marja Mills.

Aside from all that, I have read “Mockingbird” many times, including when I was taking a course on teaching middle-school literature, and I have read “Watchman” once, which was enough.

Gone Girl star Ratajkowski wrote, “RIP Harper Lee”. Though it was greeted with mixed reviews, it became an overnight best-seller. Social media users mourned the loss of the legendary author.

May her soul rest in peace. “Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it”. “The University of Alabama extends its sympathy to Nelle Harper Lee’s family and friends and the millions of readers of To Kill a Mockingbird”, the statement said.

What happens to that money now is, for the time being, a matter of speculation. She rarely gave interviews and was respected and protected by local residents. After studying to be a lawyer like her father and older sister, Lee left the university before graduating, heading to NY to become a writer, as Capote already had done.

In 1949, Lee moved to NY to pursue writing, and worked as an airline reservations clerk as her day job. Released to critical acclaim and popularity, the book won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

“Mockingbird”, meanwhile, went on to sell more than 40 million copies worldwide and was translated into more than 40 languages. The author’s output may have been small, but her contribution to American letters is massive. Her mannerly, down-home approach undoubtedly smoothed the way for the flamboyant Capote. That lawsuit seemed more relevant than ever after her lawyer Tonja Carter discovered the manuscript of Go Set A Watchmen, and coordinated its publication, which many say could not have been assented to by Lee in her infirm condition. Lee took two to write “To Kill a Mockingbird”.

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The movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird also became an American classic.

RIP, Harper Lee: Still worth reading, and talking about