Harper Lee: R.I.P.

Celebrated American writer Harper Lee, best known for penning the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, has died at the age of 89.

Lee was born April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, the youngest of four children of lawyer Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee.

As a child, Lee attended elementary school and high school just a few blocks from her house on Alabama Avenue. In a March 1964 interview, she offered this capsule view of her childhood: "I was born in a little town called Monroeville, Alabama, on April 28, 1926. I went to school in the local grammar school, went to high school there, and then went to the University of Alabama. That's about it, as far as education goes."

She moved to New York in 1949, where she worked as an airlines reservations clerk while pursuing a writing career. Eight years later, Lee submitted her manuscript for To Kill a Mockingbird to J.B. Lippincott & Co., which asked her to rewrite it.

On July 11, 1960, Lee's novel was published by Lippincott with critical and commercial success. The author won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction the following year.

The film adaptation of the novel, with Mary Badham as Scout, opened on Christmas Day of 1962 and was an instant hit.

Harper Lee suffered a stroke in 2007, recovered and resumed her life in the hometown where she spent many of her 89 years. A guardedly private individual, Lee was respected and protected by residents of the town that displays Mockingbird-themed murals and each year stages theatrical productions of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Go Set a Watchman, the Sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird, came out this past July. It also features Scout Finch, this time as an adult.

Harper Lee settling suit against Museum

USA Today reports:

To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee has settled the federal lawsuit she filed against the Monroe County Heritage Museum in Monroeville, Alabama, her hometown, over its sale of souvenirs featuring her name and the title of her book, court documents show.

An attorney for Harper Lee filed a motion Tuesday in federal court in Mobile saying Lee had reached an agreement with the Monroe County Heritage Museum in Monroeville.

The settlement notice came days after a judge refused to dismiss the lawsuit, filed last fall, that said the museum uses Lee's name and the title of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel without compensating her.

READ MORE HERE.

Harper Lee Settles Copyright Case

From Shelf Awareness:

Harper Lee has reached an "agreement in principle" to settle the lawsuit she brought in May alleging that Samuel Pinkus, son-in-law of her former literary agent, the late Eugene Winick, "duped" her into signing over To Kill a Mockingbird's copyright in 2007. 

 In addition, Pinkus's wife, Leigh Ann Winick, and Gerald Posner, "whose Miami residence is listed as the address of one of Pinkus's literary companies," were dropped from the lawsuit, USA Today wrote. 

Defense attorney Vincent Carissimi said papers dismissing the case would be filed in federal court this week, but declined to provide any details of the settlement. "The parties reached a mutually satisfactory resolution and everybody would like at this point to put it behind them," he added.