Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird Early Life Born in Monroeville, Alabama, on April 28, 1926, nelle Harper Lee is the youngest of three sons of Amassa Coleman Lee and Francis Lee. Before his death, Miss Lee's father and her older sister, Alice, practiced law together in Monroeville. When considering the theme of honor that runs through Miss Lee's novel, it is perhaps significant to note that her family is related to Confederate General Robert E. Lee, a man particularly noted for his devotion to that virtue. Miss Lee received her early education in the public schools of Monroeville. Subsequently, she entered the University of Alabama to study law. She left from there to spend a year in England as an exchange student. Returning to university, she continued her studies, but dropped out in 1950 without completing the requirements for a law degree. She moved to New York and worked as an airline reservationist. Character Miss Lee is said to personally resemble the tomboy she describes in the character of Scout. Her straight, dark hair is worn in a short style. His main interests, he says, are "collecting the memoirs of nineteenth-century clergymen, golf, crime and music." She is a Whig in political thought and believes in "Catholic emancipation and the repeal of the Corn Laws." Sources for To Kill a Mockingbird Among the sources for Miss Lee's novel are the following: (1) National Events: This novel focuses on the role of the Negro in Southern life, a life with which Miss Lee has been intimately associated. Although he is not concerned with civil rights as such – for example, the right to vote – he is very interested in the problem of human dignity – dignity based on individual merit, not on racial origin. The bigotry of the characters in this novel closely resembles that of people in the South today, where the fictional Maycomb County is located. (2) Specific people: Atticus Finch is the main character of this novel. He bears a close resemblance to Harper Lee's father, whose middle name was Finch. In addition to both being lawyers, they are similar in character and personality: humble, intelligent and hardworking. (3) Personal Experience: Boo Radley's house has an aura of fantasy, superstition, and curiosity for the Finch children. There was such a house in Harper Lee's childhood. Furthermore, Miss Lee grew up amid black prejudice and violence in Alabama. Additionally, she studied law as a child and visited her father's law offices, just as Scout visits Atticus' office and briefly considers a career as a lawyer. Writing Career Harper Lee began developing an interest in writing at the age of seven. Her law studies proved to be good training for a writing career: they promote logical thinking and legal cases are an excellent source of story ideas. After arriving in New York, she approached a literary agent with a manuscript of two essays and three short stories. Ms. Lee followed his suggestion to expand one of the stories into a novel. This eventually became To Kill a Mockingbird. After the success of her first novel, Miss Lee returned to Monroeville to begin work on a second. He quickly learned that privacy was not one of the rewards of a successful novelist. “These Southern people are Southern people,” he said, “and if they know you work at home, they think nothing of the idea of ​​coming in for coffee.” Ms. Lee also said her second novel will be about the South, because she believes her part of the country is "the haven of true eccentrics." Miss Lee considers herself a working writer and considers the.