Harper Lee was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She is best known for her 1960 novel 'To Kill a Mockingbird', which won the Pulitzer Prize and became a classic of modern American literature. The novel explores themes of racial injustice and the moral education of the protagonist, Scout Finch. Lee also assisted her close friend Truman Capote in his research for the book 'In Cold Blood' (1966). An earlier draft of 'Mockingbird', set at a later date, titled 'Go Set a Watchman', was published in 2015 as a sequel. A collection of Lee's short stories and essays, 'The Land of Sweet Forever', was published posthumously in 2025.