‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ author Harper Lee dies, 89
NEW YORK (AFP) — Harper Lee, one of America’s most celebrated novelists whose masterpiece about racial injustice “To Kill a Mockingbird” was read by millions, has died, her publisher said Friday. She was 89.
A spokeswoman for Harper Collins in New York said Lee passed away peacefully late Thursday. The Pulitzerwinning author shunned the spotlight and spent her final years living in seclusion in Monroeville, Alabama, where she was born.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” is considered one of the great classics of 20th century American literature, and is standard reading in classrooms across the world.
Published in 1960 and drawn from Lee’s own experiences as a child, it came to define racial injustice in the Depressionera South.
It tells the story of a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman and the courageous lawyer, Atticus Finch, who defies his community to defend him.
The novel sold 30 million copies and earned huge critical acclaim, winning Lee a Pulitzer prize in 1961 and thrusting her into an avalanche of publicity.
Her fame was sealed when the novel was adapted into a Hollywood film that won three Academy Awards in 1963, including an Oscar for Gregory Peck for his portrayal of Finch, one of the best-loved characters in American fiction.
Former US president George W. Bush, who awarded Lee the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civil honor in 2007, mourned the loss of “a legendary novelist and lovely lady.”
“Harper Lee was ahead of her time, and her masterpiece ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ prodded America to catch up with her. Laura and I are grateful for Harper Lee and her matchless contributions to humanity and to the character of our country,” Bush said.