Writer Nelle Harper Lee was born April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She was an American novelist widely known for To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960. Immediately successful, it won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. Though Lee had only published this single book, in 2007 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature. She was also known for helping a fellow writer and close friend, Truman Capote in his research for the book In Cold Blood (1966). Capote was the basis for the character Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird. The plot and the characters of To Kill a Mockingbird are loosely based on Lee’s observation of her family and neighbors, as well as an event
