SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
American Author Harper Lee, Whose Novel Changed Lives, Dies at 89
'The world knows Harper Lee was a brilliant writer but what many don't know is that she was an extraordinary woman of great joyfulness, humility and kindness.'
Feb 19, 2016
Influential author Nelle Harper Lee, whose novel To Kill A Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, has died at the age of 89.
A relative said Lee died in her sleep at the Meadows, an assisted living facility in Monroeville, Alabama--the same town in which she was born in 1926.
| Tweets about Harper Lee |
"This is a sad day for our family. America and the world knew Harper Lee as one of the last century's most beloved authors," Hank Conner, Lee's nephew and a spokesman for the family, said in a statement Friday morning. "We knew her as Nelle Harper Lee, a loving member of our family, a devoted friend to the many good people who touched her life, and a generous soul in our community and our state. We will miss her dearly."
To Kill A Mockingbird "needs no introduction -- because it is the introduction, for most American children, to civil rights, literature, and the justice system," Boris Kachka wrote for Vulture in 2014. The book accumulated countless accolades over the years; in 2006, the Guardian noted, "British librarians
The novel's huge success, combined with a popular 1962 film adaptation--which Lee herself considered a triumph--turned the characters of Scout and Atticus Finch, Boo Radley, and Calpurnia into household names.
Lee, on the other hand, was more inscrutable. As the LA Times writes, "Fame and its burdens overwhelmed Harper Lee, who wrote one masterpiece, then shut the door on an adoring public. She had hoped for modest approval of her debut work 'but I got rather a whole lot,' she once said, 'and in some ways this was just about as frightening'."
Still, she wasn't isolated. "Although reporters imagined a Southern Miss Havisham," the New York Times wrote on Friday, "Ms. Lee lived a quiet but relatively normal life in Monroeville, where friends and neighbors closed ranks around her to fend off unwelcome attention by tourists and reporters. She lived with [her sister] Alice, who practiced law in her 90s and died in 2014 at 103."
Her novel Go Set a Watchman, which revisits a now 26-year-old Scout who encounters intolerance in her small Alabama hometown while visiting from New York, was published, amid controversy, last year to mixed reviews.
After the news broke on Friday, fellow writers, anti-censorship advocates, and many others shared remembrances on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Michael Morrison, U.S. president of Lee's publisher HarperCollins, said in a statement: "The world knows Harper Lee was a brilliant writer, but what many don't know is that she was an extraordinary woman of great joyfulness, humility and kindness. She lived her life the way she wanted--in private--surrounded by books and the people who loved her."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
Influential author Nelle Harper Lee, whose novel To Kill A Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, has died at the age of 89.
A relative said Lee died in her sleep at the Meadows, an assisted living facility in Monroeville, Alabama--the same town in which she was born in 1926.
| Tweets about Harper Lee |
"This is a sad day for our family. America and the world knew Harper Lee as one of the last century's most beloved authors," Hank Conner, Lee's nephew and a spokesman for the family, said in a statement Friday morning. "We knew her as Nelle Harper Lee, a loving member of our family, a devoted friend to the many good people who touched her life, and a generous soul in our community and our state. We will miss her dearly."
To Kill A Mockingbird "needs no introduction -- because it is the introduction, for most American children, to civil rights, literature, and the justice system," Boris Kachka wrote for Vulture in 2014. The book accumulated countless accolades over the years; in 2006, the Guardian noted, "British librarians
The novel's huge success, combined with a popular 1962 film adaptation--which Lee herself considered a triumph--turned the characters of Scout and Atticus Finch, Boo Radley, and Calpurnia into household names.
Lee, on the other hand, was more inscrutable. As the LA Times writes, "Fame and its burdens overwhelmed Harper Lee, who wrote one masterpiece, then shut the door on an adoring public. She had hoped for modest approval of her debut work 'but I got rather a whole lot,' she once said, 'and in some ways this was just about as frightening'."
Still, she wasn't isolated. "Although reporters imagined a Southern Miss Havisham," the New York Times wrote on Friday, "Ms. Lee lived a quiet but relatively normal life in Monroeville, where friends and neighbors closed ranks around her to fend off unwelcome attention by tourists and reporters. She lived with [her sister] Alice, who practiced law in her 90s and died in 2014 at 103."
Her novel Go Set a Watchman, which revisits a now 26-year-old Scout who encounters intolerance in her small Alabama hometown while visiting from New York, was published, amid controversy, last year to mixed reviews.
After the news broke on Friday, fellow writers, anti-censorship advocates, and many others shared remembrances on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Michael Morrison, U.S. president of Lee's publisher HarperCollins, said in a statement: "The world knows Harper Lee was a brilliant writer, but what many don't know is that she was an extraordinary woman of great joyfulness, humility and kindness. She lived her life the way she wanted--in private--surrounded by books and the people who loved her."
Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
Influential author Nelle Harper Lee, whose novel To Kill A Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, has died at the age of 89.
A relative said Lee died in her sleep at the Meadows, an assisted living facility in Monroeville, Alabama--the same town in which she was born in 1926.
| Tweets about Harper Lee |
"This is a sad day for our family. America and the world knew Harper Lee as one of the last century's most beloved authors," Hank Conner, Lee's nephew and a spokesman for the family, said in a statement Friday morning. "We knew her as Nelle Harper Lee, a loving member of our family, a devoted friend to the many good people who touched her life, and a generous soul in our community and our state. We will miss her dearly."
To Kill A Mockingbird "needs no introduction -- because it is the introduction, for most American children, to civil rights, literature, and the justice system," Boris Kachka wrote for Vulture in 2014. The book accumulated countless accolades over the years; in 2006, the Guardian noted, "British librarians
The novel's huge success, combined with a popular 1962 film adaptation--which Lee herself considered a triumph--turned the characters of Scout and Atticus Finch, Boo Radley, and Calpurnia into household names.
Lee, on the other hand, was more inscrutable. As the LA Times writes, "Fame and its burdens overwhelmed Harper Lee, who wrote one masterpiece, then shut the door on an adoring public. She had hoped for modest approval of her debut work 'but I got rather a whole lot,' she once said, 'and in some ways this was just about as frightening'."
Still, she wasn't isolated. "Although reporters imagined a Southern Miss Havisham," the New York Times wrote on Friday, "Ms. Lee lived a quiet but relatively normal life in Monroeville, where friends and neighbors closed ranks around her to fend off unwelcome attention by tourists and reporters. She lived with [her sister] Alice, who practiced law in her 90s and died in 2014 at 103."
Her novel Go Set a Watchman, which revisits a now 26-year-old Scout who encounters intolerance in her small Alabama hometown while visiting from New York, was published, amid controversy, last year to mixed reviews.
After the news broke on Friday, fellow writers, anti-censorship advocates, and many others shared remembrances on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Michael Morrison, U.S. president of Lee's publisher HarperCollins, said in a statement: "The world knows Harper Lee was a brilliant writer, but what many don't know is that she was an extraordinary woman of great joyfulness, humility and kindness. She lived her life the way she wanted--in private--surrounded by books and the people who loved her."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.