Born in 1926, Harper Lee grew up in the Southern town of Monroeville, Alabama, where she became a close friend of soon-to-be-famous writer See more

The strongest element of style noted by critics and reviewers is Lee's talent for narration, which in an early review in Time was called "tactile brilliance". Writing a decade later, another scholar noted, "Harper Lee has a remarkable gift of story-telling. Her art is … See more

Despite her editors' warnings that the book might not sell well, it quickly became a sensation, bringing acclaim to Lee in literary circles, in her … See more

The story, told by Jean Louise Finch, takes place during three years (1933–35) of the Great Depression in the fictional town of Maycomb, See more

Lee said that To Kill a Mockingbird is not an autobiography, but rather an example of how an author "should write about what he knows and write truthfully". Nevertheless, … See more

Despite the novel's immense popularity upon publication, it has not received the close critical attention paid to other modern American … See more

An earlier draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, titled Go Set a Watchman, was controversially released on July 14, 2015. This draft, which was completed in 1957, is set 20 years after the time period depicted in To Kill a Mockingbird but is not a continuation of the … See more