Author Harper Lee (89) deceased

- The American writer Harper Lee is at the age of 89 in her hometown of Monroeville deceased. It confirmed its publisher Friday.

Lee became world famous overnight by her book To Kill a Mockingbird, which was published in 1960. A year later she won the Pulitzer Prize with the work. In 1962 it was successfully filmed, with, among others, Gregory Peck.

To this day the book sold very well. The Dutch bookstores is it like To Kill a Mockingbird. Already in 1957 she wrote Go Set a Watchman, which was refused by the publisher. Who first wanted a story that made twenty years earlier. That was To Kill a Mockingbird. Watchman was finally published only in 2015. Last year was sold out everywhere in no time.

Lee studied law in Alabama and in the English Oxford before settling in New York and started writing. She was in her youth neighbor Truman Capote, who also would become a famous writer. In To Kill a Mockingbird is Dill character based on him.

After the success of the early sixties Lee pulled back largely from public life. She accepted it literary awards, but never spoke a word of thanks. Occasionally she published some, but they were no books. It mainly reviews and articles.