Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
Arts & Entertainment
<em>To Kill A Mockingbird</em> Author Harper Lee Dead At 89
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Feb 19, 2016
Modified Feb 19, 2016
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Getty Images
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Feb 19, 2016
Modified Feb 19, 2016
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Harper Lee, author of To Kill A Mockingbird, has died at age 89.
Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama on April 28th, 1926, and published her famed novel in 1960 after spending several years in New York, basing a number of characters in the book on friends (including Truman Capote) and family from her hometown. To Kill A Mockingbird has since become widely regarded as a classic work of American literature, due in part to its bracing look at racial injustice in the Deep South during the Great Depression. Atticus Finch, the father figure and attorney whose stalwart defense of a black man wrongly accused of murder earned him accolades for being one of the best fictional characters in literature, was based on Lee's own father, Amasa Coleman Lee.
For decades, To Kill A Mockingbird was Lee's only published work. But last year, Harper Collins published Go Set a Watchman, a novel that was apparently the initial story Lee submitted to her editor back in the 1950s before it was shaped into Mockingbird. Watchman was criticized for its depiction of an older Atticus Finch, who NYTimes reviewer Michiko Kakutani called "a racist who once attended a Klan meeting, who says things like 'The Negroes down here are still in their childhood as a people.' Or asks his daughter: 'Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools and churches and theaters? Do you want them in our world?'”
Lee suffered a stroke in 2007 and had been living in an assisted living facility for the last few years. The state of Alabama briefly conducted an investigation into whether or not Lee had been mentally sound when she agreed to publish Watchman. Officials found no wrongdoing.
A stage production of To Kill A Mockingbird is expected to debut on Broadway next year, with a script written by Aaron Sorkin.
Tagged
RIP
obit
to kill a mockingbird
harper lee
Rebecca Fishbein
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE arts-entertainment
Will Barnes and Noble in the East Village spell doom for smaller shops? It's complicated.
Independent booksellers are grappling with whether the big-box chain is a threat or an ally in the fight against Amazon.
By
Sonia Rao
Published Oct 16, 2026
Can eligible NYC singles find love with 30 minutes and some really spicy food?
We went to the Spiciest Supper Club singles night to take the temperature of New York City's dating scene.
By
Elizabeth Shwe
and
James Ramsay
Arts & Entertainment
Can eligible NYC singles find love with 30 minutes and some really spicy food?
We went to the Spiciest Supper Club singles night to take the temperature of New York City's dating scene.
By
Elizabeth Shwe
and
James Ramsay
How the NYC Marathon has changed in the last 50 years
By
Hannah Frishberg
A visit to Art of Play, the Brooklyn store in an animatronic bird beef with Kelly Clarkson
By
Sonia Rao
The hottest way to show you're an authentic New Yorker is… riding a Citi Bike?
By
Lindsay Lee Wallace
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .