Nelle Harper Lee, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author who most famously wrote To Kill A Mockingbird, reportedly passed away today. She was 89 years old. The cause of death has not been released.
Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama on April 28, 1926. Her great American novel was loosely based on her own life experiences and surroundings as a child growing up in the South during the 1930s. She penned To Kill a Mockingbird while living in New York City and working as a flight attendant during the 1950s. The book was published on July 11, 1960, to high praise. It quickly became a best seller, winning the Pulitzer for fiction the following year.
She eventually returned to Monroeville, eschewing the public eye for a more private life. Lee suffered from a stroke in 2007. Her novel Go Set a Watchman was published in 2015, amidst controversy surrounding the author's wishes for publication.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT