Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird

Nelle Harper Lee (b. 1926) is an American novelist known for her Pulitzer Prize–winning 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird, her only published novel to date. In 2007, she was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contributions to literature.

Upon its release in 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was instantly successful and has become a classic of modern American fiction, as well as a favorite of librarians. The novel is based loosely on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, and on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old.

To learn more about Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird, stop by the Southeast Steuben County Library at 300 Nasser Civic Center Plaza in Corning. Ask for a Reader's Guide to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. It's free, thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

The NEA Readers Guide is available online at www.neabigread.org, or use these links:

About the Book

About Harper Lee

Historical Context

Discussion Questions

Teacher's Guide

Here is a profile of Harper Lee that appeared in The Guardian/The Observer in 2006:

Author Profile

Here is a link to notable quotations from Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird:

Quotations