Harper Lee (born 1926) is considered by many to be a literary icon. Her controversial novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961.

Nelle Harper Lee was born April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama, to Amasa Coleman and Frances (Finch) Lee. She is descended from Robert E. Lee, Civil War commander of the Confederate Army. Lee's father had been born in Butler County, Alabama, in 1880 and moved to Monroeville in 1913. He served in the Alabama State Legislature from 1927 to 1939, and was the model for Atticus Finch, hero of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Lee attended Huntingdon College, a private school for women in Montgomery, Alabama, from 1944 to 1945. She then transferred to the University of Alabama, which she attended from 1945 to 1950. While a student at Alabama, Lee contributed to several student publications, including the humor magazine Rammer-Jammer. In 1947, she enrolled at the University of Alabama School of Law. Lee traveled to...