The author of hugely successful novel To Kill a Mockingbird has died at the age of 89 it has been reported.
Best known for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which has sold over 30 million copies and was made into a successful film starring Gregory Peck, Lee was known for her privacy – particularly after the success of the novel.
Although it was thought that the Pulitzer prize winning novel would be her only novel, it was discovered a few years ago that a sequel had been discovered and was published last July with the title Go Set a Watchman.
The news of her death was confirmed by the mayor’s office in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama – where she lived her entire life.
Lee was born in 1926 in Monroeville, growing up in the racial divide segregation – which became the setting of Maycomb, the fictional town in which To Kill a Mockingbird was set.
To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of small-town lawyer Atticus Finch’s battle to save the life of a black resident from a racist mob. Its sequel is set two decades after the original, against the backdrop of civil rights tensions and sees scout return home from New York to visit her father – but turns bitter-sweet when she learns some truths about her family and the town they live in.
The news of Harper Lee’s death will certainly reignite interest in both novels, that still have relevance today.