Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama. Her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which was published in 1960, turned Lee into a literary celebrity and won her a Pulitzer Prize. Despite the book’s huge success, Harper Lee never published another novel in her lifetime. In 2015, long after the public had given up on seeing anything more from her, a manuscript which she had submitted in 1957, before To Kill A Mockingbird, and was thought to be lost had resurfaced mysteriously. It was published a year later under the title Go Set a Watchman. Many years after Lee became a household name, she would say straightforwardly that the success of her first novel overwhelmed her, making it impossible for her to write a follow-up book.
And To Kill A Mockingbird indeed was, and still is, a phenomenon. Its enduring success was unprecedented. Only a week after its publication, the novel jumped to the top of the best-seller list and remained there for 88 weeks. It was translated into some 40 languages and sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. Its appeal, in part, is due to the universal themes it grapples with, empathy, identity, and compassion.
Harper Lee died in 2016, in her hometown of Monroeville, where she spent the latter part of her life. Here are some of the most remarkable and enduring quotes she left us.
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