Nelle Harper Lee was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. The town of Monroeville served as the model for the fictional town of Maycomb used in both To Kill A Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman. A great deal can be learned about the town through these websites: Monroe County Museum and The Official Travel Site of Alabama. The County Courthouse, which is now a museum, served as the model for the courthouse and courtroom in the classic movie To Kill A Mockingbird staring Gregory Peck. The town now has annual reenactments of Tom Robinson's courtroom scene.
Nelle was the youngest of 4 children of Frances Cunningham Finch and Amasa Coleman Lee (he went by A.C.). Nelle is her grandmother's name spelled backwards. She chose to use Harper Lee as her pen name because she wanted to avoid the problem of having people mispronounce "Nelle" (1 syllable) as "Nellie".
The character of Dill in Mockingbird was based on the Lees' real life neighbor Truman Capote, and she helped him do research for his novel In Cold Blood. Capote verified that there really was a mysterious, reclusive man who lived down the street and left gifts for them in a tree, just as Boo Radley did in the novel. Here is a photo of Lee with Capote:
As indicated in Watchman, Nelle's childhood home really was torn down and an ice cream shop built in its place. Here is a photo of the current business and the wall that separated the Lee yard from Capote's.
The character of Atticus Finch is based on A.C. Lee who was an Alabama state legislator and Monroe County attorney. In real life, Nelle's older sister Alice (15 years her senior) was also an attorney in Monroeville into her 90s. She just passed away in November 2014 at the age of 103. Nelle referred to Alice as "Atticus in a skirt". They lived together in the Lee family home until just a few years ago. Here is a photo of Alice at work:
Harper Lee has been famously reclusive since the 1960s when Mockingbird was published. She attended award and honor ceremonies as well as some other public events, but otherwise she tried to keep a very low profile and she avoided the spotlight as much as possible. In spite of her reclusive nature, there are many photos online of her. Here is one of her in Scout's balcony at the famous courthouse:
Here is a photo of Lee with Gregory Peck who played Atticus Finch in the movie. They became very good friends for the rest of his life (he died in 2003).
This last photo was taken in the Monroeville assisted living facility where she has lived since she had a stroke in 2007. Here she is seen with her lawyer who was instrumental in getting Watchman published for her.
Earlier this summer I stumbled upon a book that I didn't know existed before. It is called The Mockingbird Next Door, and it is the only "authorized" biography of Nelle Harper Lee. It was written by Marja Mills, a journalist from the Chicago Tribune who first met Nelle and Alice when she was doing a story about Chicago making To Kill A Mockingbird a city-wide-reading project. Mills became a good friend of the 2 sisters, and eventually moved into the house next door to theirs. She was given unparalleled access to their friends who had permission to share stories about their lives. Here is Marja Mills and her book cover:
I finished this book just a few days before I started reading Watchman, and I found it fascinating. It really gives insight into Nelle's personality as well as to some of the stories of her life that helped shape both Mockingbird and Watchman. She is extremely intelligent and well-read with a wicked sense of humor and sharp sarcastic wit. Over the years since Mockingbird was published, Lee was often asked why she didn't write anything else, and she always said it was because she had said what she had to say, and that was all, but Marja Mills also indicated that Nelle detested the publicity and the attention that came with the publication, and she didn't want to ever have to go through that again.
For most of her adult life Nelle split her time between her home in Monroeville and a home in Manhattan. She traveled back and forth by train because she feared airline travel, even though she had worked for the airlines in NYC when she first lived there in her early 20s.
Here is a very interesting article about the places that were important to her in Manhattan where she maintained an apartment for some 40 years - Lee's life in NYC. One thing she liked about living in The Big Apple was that she was very anonymous there. She didn't stand out as a famous author there like she did back home in Alabama.
I highly recommend The Mockingbird Next Door to anyone who wants to get a feel for the real world of Nelle Harper Lee. Reading it really helped me understand more deeply the character of Scout Finch and the world she lived in.
Thanks for sticking with me on this very long 2 part journey. I hope you learned a few things along the way. I'd love to hear your thoughts on these books if you are willing to share!
HAPPY READING!
Come back again soon!
:)Amy
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