7th-Harper+Lee

//**Biography**//
Harper Lee was born in Monroeville. Her father worked as a newspaper editor, lawyer, and state senator. She studied law at The University of Alabama from 1945-1949. She spent a year as an exchange student at Oxford University, Wellington Square. Six months before finishing her studies, she went to New York to pursue her literary career. To Kill A Mockingbird was Lee's first novel. Although Harper Lee's novel was a huge success, she did not continue her career as a writer. She returned from New York to Monroeville, avoiding the media. On November 5th, 2007, Lee was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush at a White House Ceremony. It is the highest civilian award in the the United States. Harper Lee is considered to be one of the greatest southern writers of all time.

​//**To Kill A Mockingbird **//

The book is set in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. Atticus is a lawyer and father and defends a black man, Tom Robinson. He is accused of raping a poor white girl, Mayella Ewell. The setting and several of the characters are drawn from life- Finch was madien name of Lee's mother and the character of Dill was taken from Capote, Lee's friend from her childhood. The narrator is Finch's daughter, nicknamed Scout. She is an immensely intelligent and observant child. The story begins when she is six-years-old and relates many of her experiences, usually interest of a child, and the collision with reality that interupts her shelter world of childhood.

//**​The Legacy **//

Even after the glitter from Hollywood had faded, To Kill A Mockingbird continued to reach new audiences of all ages. By 1982 it had sold more than 15 million copies around the world. Claudia Durst Johnson quoted a study that found that To Kill A Mockingbird "has been consistently one of the ten most frequently required books in secondary schools since it's publication in 1960." The controversial book has endured numerous attempts to have it banned. In the 1960s, many southerners objected to its portrayal of white people. Johnson found a servey that ranked To Kill A Mockingbird "second only to the Bible in being most often cited as making a difference in people's lives." Lee never tried to follow up her first success. After To Kill A Mockingbird, the only thing she published were two magazine articles, both in 1961.