Nelle Harper Lee was born in 1925. She was known as a loner and a individualist who wasn't worried about looks and fashion like other girls. Nelle Harper Lee, the youngest of five children of Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch, was raised in Monroeville, Alabama. Nelle, her first name, was, her grandmother's name, spelled backwards.
Her mother was a homemaker; her father, a former newspaper editor and proprietor, practiced law and served in the Alabama State Legislature from 1926 to 1938. Before A.C. Lee became a title lawyer, he once defended two black men accused of murdering a white storekeeper. Both clients, a father and son, were hanged. As a child, Lee was a tomboy, a precocious reader, and best friends with her schoolmate and neighbor, the young Truman Capote.
Sound vaguely familiar? Lee went to college and focused on her studies which included English literature and writing. She was later accepted into law school, but left to pursue her writing. Lee arrived in New York City in 1949, aged 23. She struggled for several years, working as a ticket agent for Eastern Airlines and for the British Overseas Air Corp. While in the city, Lee was reunited with old friend Truman Capote, one of the literary rising stars of the time.
She also befriended Broadway composer and lyricist Michael Brown and his wife, Joy. Having written several long stories, Harper Lee found an agent in November 1956. The following month at the Browns' East 50th townhouse, she received a gift of a year's wages from them with a note: "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas." She quit the airline and devoted herself to writing. Within a year, she had a first draft. She eventually showed the manuscript to Tay Hohoff, an editor at J. B. Lippincott & Co..
At this point, it still resembled a string of stories more than the novel Lee had intended. Under Hohoff's guidance, two and a half years of rewriting followed. When the novel was finally ready, she opted to use the name "Harper Lee", rather than be misidentified as "Nellie". Published July 11, 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate bestseller.