Harper+Lee

Allison: "Harper Lee Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story - Biography.com." //Famous Biographies & TV Shows - Biography.com//. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. [].
 * 1) born April 28, 1926
 * 2) born in Monroeville Alabama
 * 3) full name is Nelle Harper Lee
 * 4) best known for To Kill a Mockingbird
 * 5) only novel written
 * 6) youngest of 4 children
 * 7) grew up as a tomboy
 * 8) father was a lawyer, member of Alabama State Legislature and owned part of the local newspaper
 * 9) mother suffered from mental illness
 * 10) graduated high school in 1944

Allison: "Author Profile: Harper Lee." //Teenreads.com//. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. [].


 * 1) attended Huntingdon College from 1944-1945
 * 2) studied law at the University of Alabama from 1945-1949
 * 3) studied one year at Oxford University
 * 4) worked for an airline company in the 1950’s
 * 5) quit job at airline to concentrate on her writing
 * 6) in 1957 she submitted the manuscript for To Kill a Mockingbird
 * 7) for the next two and a half years she revised the manuscript with the help of her editor
 * 8) in 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was published
 * 9) in June of 1966 Harper was named by President Johnson to the National Council of Arts
 * 10) one of the finest novels written in the century

Allison: "Harper Lee." //Encyclopedia of Alabama//. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. [].


 * 1) book became international best seller
 * 2) was 34 when book was published
 * 3) won numerous awards for book
 * 4) film version of To Kill a Mockingbird was released in 1962
 * 5) students in schools and colleges worldwide study the novel
 * 6) sold over 30 million copies
 * 7) been translated into 30 different languages
 * 8) March 2011, Obama awarded Lee with the 2010 National Medal of Arts
 * 9) awarded for her “outstanding contribution to the excellence, growth, support and the availability of arts.”
 * 10) won numerous other awards

Allison: "Harper Lee." //NNDB: Tracking the Entire World//. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. [].
 * 1) based novel off of her life
 * 2) father was a lawyer in novel and in real life
 * 3) Scout is Lee as a child
 * 4) Lee’s father defended a black man accused of raping a white woman in the novel as well as in real life
 * 5) Capote was Lee’s friend in real life and played the roll of Dill in the novel, Scouts’ friend
 * 6) Capote lived with his aunts, next to Lee as a child during the summer while his mother visited New York
 * 7) most characters based off real people in Lee’s life
 * 8) “never expected any sort of success with Mockingbird” said Lee
 * 9) had difficult time writing next novel
 * 10) wrote a few magazine essays after Mockingbird was published
 * 11) doesn’t like or want all the attention from the public
 * 12) declines all interview requests, rarely makes public appearances and tries to stay away from all publicity

Allison: "Harper Lee: Biography from Answers.com." //Answers.com: Wiki Q&A Combined with Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Encyclopedias//. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. [].
 * 1) says To Kill a Mockingbird is not an autobiography
 * 2) says its an example of how an author “should write about what he or she knows and write truthfully”
 * 3) scholars have characterized To Kill a Mockingbird as both bildungsroman and southern gothic
 * 4) novel has been noted for exploration of different forms of courage
 * 5) not all comments of book were good or enthusiastic
 * 6) after only one year of being published, it was translated into 10 different languages
 * 7) novel has become part of the standard literature curriculum
 * 8) people questioned its appropriateness in classrooms and libraries across the US
 * 9) American Library Association claimed Mockingbird to be 21 out of the 100 most frequently challenged books of 2000-2009
 * 10) for a few years after publications Lee liked all the attention
 * 11) enjoyed attending schools, interviews and attending events honoring the book
 * 12) in 2001 she was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor
 * 13) awarded an honorary doctorate in 2006
 * 14) awarded presidential medal of freedom on November 5, 2007
 * 15) awarded by George W. Bush

Allison: "Biography of Harper Lee | List of Works, Study Guides & Essays | GradeSaver." //Study Guides & Essay Editing | GradeSaver//. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. [].
 * 1) developed an interest in English literature in high school
 * 2) excepted into law school he junior year
 * 3) “I think its one of the best translations of book to film ever made” Lee said about Mockingbird
 * 4) arrived in New York City at age 23
 * 5) arrived there in 1949
 * 6) struggled for several years
 * 7) To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate best seller
 * 8) everything she wrote was true
 * 9) as a child Lee was a tomboy
 * 10) enjoyed reading
 * 11) best friends with her neighbor and her schoolmate
 * 12) still lives in New York
 * 13) prefers to live a private life

**Nicci:** Handschuh, Judith. "Author Profile: Harper Lee." //Teenreads.com//. Teen Reads, 2003. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. [].


 * 1) Nelle Harper Lee, born April 28, 1926
 * 2) Born inMonroeville,Alabama(city of about 7,000 people) inMonroeCounty
 * 3) Youngest of 4 children, parents; Amasa Coleman Lee and Francis Finch Lee
 * 4) AttendedHuntingtonCollegein 1944-45
 * 5) Studied law at theUniversityofAlabama1945-49
 * 6) Studied one year atOxfordUniversity
 * 7) In 1950’s worked as reservation clerk with Eastern Airlines inNew York City
 * 8) To concentrate on writing, gave up position with the airline
 * 9) 1957, submitted manuscript of her novel to J.B. Lippincott company
 * 10) Told that her novel consisted of series of short stories put together, had to rewrite
 * 11) For 2 ½ years reworked manuscript with help of editor Tay Hohoff
 * 12) 1960, it was published

**Nicci:** "The Big Read | To Kill a Mockingbird." //The Big Read | National Endowment for the Arts//. The Big Read. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. [].
 * 1) Her first name is her grandmother’s name spelled backward
 * 2) Mother- Frances Cunningham Finch Lee was a homemaker
 * 3) Father- Amasa Coleman Lee practiced law
 * 4) Before he became a title lawyer, he defended 2 black men accused of murdering a white storekeeper; both clients, father and a son were hanged
 * 5) As a child was a tomboy
 * 6) Fought on playground, talked back to teachers, bored with school and resisted conformity
 * 7) In high school had a gifted English teacher, Gladys Watson Burkett who introduced her to challenging literature & rules of writing well
 * 8) Became editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper //Rammer Jammer// at theUniversity ofAlabama
 * 9) Entered law school, but hated it
 * 10) Her father’s hopes that she would became a local attorney like her sister Alice

**Nicci:** "Biography of Harper Lee | List of Works, Study Guides & Essays | GradeSaver." //Study Guides & Essay Editing | GradeSaver//. Grade Saver. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. [].
 * 1) Childhood- enjoyed friendship of her schoolmate and neighbor, Truman Capote
 * 2) He provided the basic of the character, Dill in her novel
 * 3) Only 5 when in April 1931 in small town ofScottsboro, first trials began with the regard to the rapes of 2 white women by 9 young black men
 * 4) The defendants weren’t provided a lawyer until first day of trial
 * 5) Medical testimony said the women had not been raped, all-white jury found men guilty of crime and sentenced all of them
 * 6) But the youngest, 12 year old boy to death
 * 7) Trial lasted 6 years
 * 8) Worked inHolcombe,Kansasas research assistant for Truman Capote’s novel, In Cold Blood in 1959
 * 9) Capote and Lee remained closer friends
 * 10) Novel was popular selling more than 15 million copies
 * 11) Book was made into movie in 1962

**Nicci:** Anderson, Nancy G. "Harper Lee." //Encyclopedia of Alabama//. 19 Mar. 2007. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. [].
 * 1) Denies that the story is autobiographical
 * 2) She was definitely influenced by her childhood experiences
 * 3) 1965 interview: “We had to use our own devices in our play, for our entertainment. We didn’t have much money… We didn’t have toys, nothing was done for us, so the result was that we lived in our imagination most of the time. We devised things; we were readers and we would transfer everything we had seen on the printed page to the backyard in the form of high drama.”
 * 4) After quitting her job with the airlines, her brother and mother passed away
 * 5) The novel is set in 1930s, decade during whichAlabama’s racist “Scottsboro Boys” case took place
 * 6) Relates events through her narrator, Jean Louise (Scout) Finch
 * 7) Novel’s release was described as a “summer storm”
 * 8) Critics praised Lee for capturing the setting of a small southern town with its complex social fabric of blacks and whites of all classes
 * 9) Other reviewers commented on its narrative technique, characterization, balance of humor and tragedy, use of symbolism, and careful interweaving of numerous themes
 * 10) Won numerous awards, in addition to the Pulitzer Prize: the Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews (1961), The Alabama Library Association Award (1961), Bestsellers Paperback of the Year Award (1962)

**Nicci:** "Harper Lee (Author of To Kill a Mockingbird)." //Share Book Recommendations With Your Friends, Join Book Clubs, Answer Trivia//. Good Reads. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. [].
 * 1) Was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
 * 2) Won it for her contribution to literature in 2007
 * 3) Been the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, but has always declined to make a speech
 * 4) Significant contributions; Assisted her close friend, Truman Capote, in his research for the book __In Cold Blood__
 * 5) Father was a lawyer who served in the Alabama State Legislature from 1926-1938
 * 6) She said; “I never expected any sort of success with Mockingbird. I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I’d expected.
 * 7) Enrolled atMonroeCountyHigh School, developed interest in English literature
 * 8) Graduated in 1944, went to the all-femaleHuntingdonCollegeinMontgomery
 * 9) Stood apart from other students; couldn’t care less about fashion, makeup or dating
 * 10) Member of literary honor society and glee club

**Nicci:** "Harper Lee Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story - Biography.com." //Famous Biographies & TV Shows - Biography.com//. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. [].
 * 1) Transferred to theUniversityofAlabamaatTuscaloosa
 * 2) Known for being a loner and individualist
 * 3) Joined a sorority there for awhile
 * 4) Contributed to school newspaper and its humor magazine, //The Rammer Jammer//
 * 5) Eventually became the editor
 * 6) Her junior year, accepted into the university’s law school
 * 7) It allowed students to work on law degrees while still undergraduates
 * 8) Went toOxfordUniversitythat summer inEnglandas an exchange student, expressed to her family that writing was her calling, not law
 * 9) Returned to her law studies that fall
 * 10) Dropped out after the first semester
 * 11) Soon moved toNew York Cityto follow dreams to become a writer

**Nicci:** "Harper Lee." //NNDB: Tracking the Entire World//. NNDB. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. [].
 * 1) Since pub Since //To Kill a Mockingbird//, granted almost no request for interviews or public appearances
 * 2) Besides few short essays, has published no further writings
 * 3) Worked on a second novel, //The Long Goodbye//, eventually filing it away unfinished
 * 4) During mid- 1980’s, began a factual book about anAlabamaserial murderer, but put it aside when she wasn’t satisfied
 * 5) WonAcademyAward in 1962 for screenplay adaptation of //To Kill a Mockingbird// by Horton Foote
 * 6) Became a friend of Gregory Peck who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Atticus Finch

==Kirsten :"Harper Lee Biography."//Biography.com//. A&E Television Networks., n.d. Web. 24 Oct 2011. . ==
 * 1)  Best known for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning best-seller //To Kill a// //Mockingbird// (1960)
 * 2)  One and only novel.
 * 3)  In high school, Lee developed an interest in English literature.
 * 4) By the mid-1960s, Lee was reportedly working on a second novel, but it was never published.
 * 5)  She spent some of her time on a nonfiction book project about an Alabama serial killer, which had the working title //The Reverend//. But the work was never published.
 * 6)  Lee continues to live a quiet, private life in New York City and Monroeville
 * 7)  She usually avoids anything to do with her still popular novel.
 * 8)  After her first year in the law program, Lee began expressing to her family that writing—not the law—was her true calling
 * 9)  In 1956, the Browns gave Lee an impressive Christmas present—to support her for a year so that she could write full time. She quit her job and devoted herself to her craft.
 * 10)  He, in turn, was able to get the publishing firm interested in her first novel, which was first titled //Go Set a Watchman//, then //Atticus//, and later //To Kill a Mockingbird//.

== Kirsten :Wiehardt, Ginny. "All About Harper Lee." // About. com //. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct 2011. . ==


 * 1)  Harper Lee’s mother was Frances Cunningham Finch. Lee uses all three of her mother’s names for characters in // To Kill a Mockingbird //
 * 2) // To Kill a Mockingbird // was made into a major motion picture starring Gregory Peck in 1962. Peck won an Oscar for his performance in the film.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">// To Kill a Mockingbird // was banned by Virginia’s Hanover County School Board in 1966 because it deals with the subject of rape. Harper Lee defended her book as espousing a Christian ethic and an honorable code of conduct, and she scathingly questioned whether the school board members, in grossly misjudging her novel’s content, were illiterate.
 * 4) <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">fought fiercely to stay out of the public eye
 * 5) <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Much speculation about her inaccessibility and why she has completed only one book.
 * 6) <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Lee—through the spirited tomboy Scout and the quietly private Boo Radley—has already revealed everything about herself that we need to know.
 * 7) <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The book To Kill a Mockingbird is based off Lee’s life
 * 8) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">"I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of reviewers, but at the same time I sort of hoped that maybe someone would like it enough to give me encouragement . . . I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected.
 * 9) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Lives a quiet life in her hometown, Monroeville, AL.
 * 10) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Harper Lee frequently defended her less rambunctious friend Truman Capote in the schoolyard. She later did the research for his acclaimed novel // In Cold Blood //.

==<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> **Kirsten:** Handschuh, Judith. "Author Profile: Harper Lee." // Teenreads.com //. N.p., 2003. Web. 24 Oct 2011. <http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-lee-harper.asp>. == <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">10.'Mockingbird'...has never been out of print and I am still alive...It still says what it has to say; it has managed to survive the years without preamble."
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Youngest of four children of Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Finch Lee.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Her father's sudden illness forced her to divide her time between New York and Monroeville, a practice she has continued.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> In 1957 Miss Lee submitted the manuscript of her novel to the J. B. Lippincott Company.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Told that her novel consisted of a series of short stories strung together, and she was urged to rewrite it
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">For the next two and a half years she reworked the manuscript with the help of her editor, Tay Hohoff, and in 1960 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD was published, her only published book.
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> In June of 1966, Harper Lee was one of two people named by President Johnson to the National Council of Arts.
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Since its publication in 1960 it has never been out of print.
 * 8) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">To Kill a Mocking Bird is more of an autobiographical than we realize
 * 9) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">When a 35th anniversary edition of To Kill a Mocking Bird was being prepared, a publisher asked her to write an introduction for the book. She wrote, "Please spare 'Mockingbird' an Introduction.

==<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Kirsten :Untermeyer, Louis. "Harper Lee's To Kill a Mocking Bird: Literary Analysis." N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct 2011. <http://www.ericchrist.com/non-fiction/mockingbird.htm>. ==

> > **Kirsten :**"Harper Lees Novel Achievement."//Smithsonian. com//. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct 2011. <http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Harper-Lees-Novel-Achievement.html>. > > **Kirsten**: Bilen, W.A. "Hiding Harper Lee."//Story South//. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct 2011. <http://www.storysouth.com/nonfiction/2006/01/hiding_harper_lee.html>. > > **Kirsten: "Harper Lee News." New York Times. N.p.,n.d. Web. 25 Oct 2011. <Bilen, W.A." Hiding Harper Lee." Story South. n.p.,nd. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.>** > > > > > > > > > > >
 * 1) <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Through the use of a first person narrative style and in depth character development, Lee portrays the themes in a way she feels will evoke both sympathetic and empathetic feelings within the reader
 * 2) <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Uses great diction to capture and hold the reader's attention.
 * 3) <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Lee has taken a story, already bound to touch the hearts of many, and brought this novel to life
 * 4) <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The civil rights angle certainly makes it modern, but the timeless themes of childhood and innocence are just that: timeless.
 * 5) <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Harper Lee skillfully ensures that it isn’t merely a political me
 * 6) <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">This book is loaded with symbolism. Jem and Scout symbolize innocence, Atticus symbolizes decency and goodness while protecting innocence, Tom Robinson is the symbol of oppression, the town is the symbol of white bigotry, Radley the symbol of the misunderstood “weirdo.”
 * 7) <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Placed it in the Deep South.
 * 8) <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The primary theme of the novel, in the context of modern fiction, is civil rights
 * 9) <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Lee demonstrates this endeavor through many adversities.
 * 10) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Is a celebrated novel due to its relative and touching thematic structure.
 * 1) ranks as one of the crankiest writers on the planet
 * 2) the best-known native of the town (pop. 6,372) that served as the model for her novel’s Maycomb
 * 3) has found herself living a short drive from one restaurant called the Mockingbird Grill and another named Radley’s Fountain
 * 4) The gift shop is in the venerable courthouse where as a child Lee watched her father practice law, and which she later rendered so vividly in her book.
 * 5) Lee, who has steadfastly refused to take part in the merchandising of her most famous accomplishment.
 * 6) This could be an especially maddening season for the 84-year-old author, given that 2010 marks the 50th year since //To Kill a Mockingbird// was published, and we all know how the media love anniversaries.
 * 7) will probably sell at least a million more this year, mostly to high schools and junior high schools
 * 8) In surveys asking what one book every civilized person should read, //Mockingbird// routinely finishes second to the Bible, and in one (if I may go a bit Maycomb on you here) it up and finished first.
 * 9) //Mockingbird// is hardly a marketer’s or publicist’s dream, and could easily have been dismissed as a downer
 * 10) “My book had a universal theme,” she told the Birmingham//Post-Herald// in 1962. “It’s not a ‘racial’ novel. It portrays an aspect of civilization, not necessarily Southern civilization.”
 * 1) In the photograph she looks a bit impish. Dark eyes shift under unplucked brows as she peeks at the photographer over her left shoulder. Her brown hair, chopped boyishly, frames a face not quite thin, while her tight-lipped smile seems to conceal a secret.
 * 2) Shot in a rocket to fame in 1960 at the age of thirty-four.
 * 3) Saw the movie claim eight Academy Award nominations, take four, in 1963.
 * 4) Ran her finger over Capote’s dedication to her when //In Cold Blood// was published to great acclaim in 1965.
 * 5) “Americaworships the extrovert,” insists Toni Weingarten. That may be true, butAmericaalso obsesses over the introvert. We want what we can’t have. We want Harper Lee.
 * 6) Journalists and historians have described her as elusive, reclusive, and “a delicious mystery,” they who have tried to approach but failed.
 * 7) She will spend the summer inNew York, roaming in virtual obscurity, appearing to be just another senior citizen taking the bus or cheering at a Mets game, returning home to her one-bedroom apartment on theUpper East Side
 * 8) Harper Lee’s biggest secret? She’s not a recluse at all. She simply wants to live a regular life, to be allowed an existence outside the bounds of a couple hundred pages written decades ago.
 * 9) If she felt the press had represented her accurately, she might not have stopped granting interviews.
 * 10) If fans had allowed her to talk about something other than her characters, she might not have stopped accepting speaking invitations.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">uses memorable characters to explore civil rights and racism in the segregated southernUnited States of the 1930s.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Told through the eyes of Scout, you learn about her father Atticus, an attorney who hopelessly strives to prove the innocence of a black man unjustly accused of rape;
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The title of //To Kill a Mockingbird// refers to the local belief, introduced early in the novel and referred to again later, that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Harper Lee is subtly implying that the townspeople are responsible for killing Tom Robinson, and that doing so was not only unjust and immoral, but sinful.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">The events of //To Kill a Mockingbird// take place while Scout Finch, the novel’s narrator, is a young child.
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">But the sophisticated vocabulary and sentence structure of the story indicate that Scout tells the story many years after the events described, when she has grown to adulthood.
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">//To Kill a Mockingbird// is unusual because it is both an examination of racism
 * 8) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Within the framework of a coming-of-age story, Lee examines a very serious social problem. Lee seamlessly blends these two very different kinds of stories.
 * 9) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">but it was a book that had an extraordinary impact on American society
 * 10) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">"A tomboy from Monroeville, Ala., editor of her college humor magazine, The Rammer Jammer, and law school dropout, she took it on the lam to New York, got a job, made friends and managed to write a novel that hit the best-seller lists and stayed there, won a Pulitzer, got made into a major movie and became a staple of high school English along with "Romeo and Juliet" and "The Great Gatsby