.HARPER LEE -- AUTHOR -- "TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD"

The book "To Kill A Mockingbird" written by the author Harper Lee covered a very sensitive subject. Especially at that time where black people were still more looked down than today. The story also is written in a fascinating but unusual style. Gregory Peck acting as the lawyer gave a perfect performance in the film and with that full justice to the book.

Whether Victoria and David Beckham did call their daughter after the Author Harper Lee or not is still debatable but the Author Harper Lee is a brilliant writer. It is regrettable that she never wrote another book after her 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.

Nellie Harper Lee was born on 28 April, 1926. She was the fourth child of her parents Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee. Finch was her mother name.

His classic book was published on 11 July 1960 and celebrates this year its 51 anniversary. It sold more the 40 million copies and was translated into 50 languages. The film with Gregory Peck and Brock Peters in 1962 won an Oscar.

Author Harper Lee described so well the powerful racial prejudice in the Depression era Deep South.

AUTHOR HARPER LEE AT THE WHITE HOUSE IN 2007 RECEIVING THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM. SHE ONLY ATTENTED AFTER A PROMISE NOT HAVING TO MAKE AN ACCEPTANCE SPEECH.

Her success of the book was so unexpected that she never wrote another novel after her masterpiece. As a matter of fact she stopped giving interviews after 1964. Ever since she lives a very reclusive live.

Today, she lives in a retirement home. A small God-fearing Alabama town of Monroeville. It is the same town where she was born and raised. This experience and environment is reflected in her novel's setting, Maycomb.

As a matter of fact the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee reflects a lot of the author herself. Harper Lee Novel is almost an autobiographical book. The tomboy, Scout, watches her father defending a black man accused of raping a white woman, it opens up the Southern society's racial bigotry. The young six-year, Scout, will see how the wrong man is convicted and only because he is black. Author Harper Lee wrote the tragic story but without any sentimental lines. It is a touching and warm novel.

It is understood that Nellie Harper Lee herself was a tomboy and a bookworm. Therefore it assumed that Lee put all those memories into the tomboy Scout who also loves reading.

Her father A. C. Lee was a lawyer and in 1919 he defended two black men who were accused of murder. He couldn't save them and they were both hanged. After that AC Lee never took a criminal case. Now Lee's father was in her book Atticus Finch, played by Gregory Peck. He was abused for defending a black man.

In her book Lee also brought in the character of Boo Radley. Scout is scared of him because she doesn't know anything about him, being a reclusive. Lee also knew a hermit in her childhood. She also felt herself an outsider.

She felt herself understood by her young neighbour Truman Capote because he too felt alienated from the rest of the children around them. Capote is the author of 'Breakfast At Tiffany's'. Lee modelled Scout's friend Dill on Capote. It was also Capote who suggested to her to write a book and encouraged her.

Lee thought she would be a lawyer like her father and sister Alice. She read law at the University of Alabama. Capote persuaded her otherwise. In the Fifties she moved to New York and worked as an airline reservations clerk for BOAC. She started to write in her spare time. However, when her friend, a Broadway composer Michael Brown, gave her enough money to take a year off and write whatever she pleases that was when she started in earnest.

A year later she had her transcript To Kill A Mockingbird ready. The editor Tay Hohoff made her do several revisions and at one stage she threw her manuscript out of the window into the snow. Her agent made her to retrieve it and it was published. It became a classic there and then. It won the prestigious Pulitzer price.

It shook Lee totally. In her real and last interview Lee said: "She never expected any sort of success. It was like being hit over the head and knocked cold". At that time she vowed to write more. Then she vanished from the limelight.

The Author Harper lee could not be called a complete reclusive because she sees her family and friends. She just stays out of the public eye. Nevertheless, why she never wrote other books is very debatable. She did start another book called 'The Long Goodbye' but never tried to publish it. Her editor Hohoff died suddenly and that could also be a reason.

A documentary was produced and it might give a few answers. It includes interviews with the writer's sister Alice, 99. The Author Harper Lee is very close with her sister. Everybody is waiting for a biography and looks like it will be published soon.

CONCLUSION: The journalist Marja Mills is writing, at the moment, a biography called 'The Mockingbird Next Door'. Hopefully it will be published by 2013. Author Harper Lee's fans hoping to get a glimpse and more information about the media-shy writer.

 Her sister Alice confirmed that it had been written having a complete access and therefore contains Harper Lee facts of her life. It is hoped that we learn more about the person who wrote such a bestseller and why the Author Harper Lee never wrote another book.