Harper Lee: Her Life In New York City
harper lee new york
The great author Harper Lee passed away today at the age of 89, and while she famously wrote about life in the South, few realize the time she spent living right here in New York City shaped her career.
When a young Harper Lee arrived in New York she gained a broader perspective on the world. According to Lee’s biographer, Charles Shields, “It was the contrast between a Cosmopolitan life lived among many different kinds of people that made her realize that her beloved hometown in Southern Alabama was a thing of the past.”
While her hometown in Alabama might have been lost in the past, Shields believes she maintained her small-town mentality. She hardly left her Upper East Side neighborhood and didn't participate much in the cultural life of New York.
“In fact,” Shields said, “some friends of hers wrote her a letter saying, ‘Well we’re coming up to New York and we’d love to meet some writers,’ and she wrote back, ‘So would I.”
While she might not have been involved in New York's cultural scene, her book "To Kill A Mockingbird" will live long in the cultural lives of New York's children and parents alike.
