After To Kill A Mockingbird

After the publication of her bestseller, Harper Lee hadn't published any more of her writing except for a few short essays.  She had started writing a second novel called The Long Goodbye, but never finished.  Later, in the 1980s, she started another novel about an Alabama serial murderer, but she wasn't satisfied with it so she also put that one aside.

When the Academy Award-winning screenplay of To Kill A Mockingbird came out in 1962, Harper Lee said: "I think it is one of the best translations of a book to film ever made".  Gregory Peck, who plays Atticus Finch in the movie, became a friend of Harper Lee's.  She remained close to his family, and Gregory Peck's grandson was even named Harper, after Harper Lee.

Harper Lee distributed her time between her sister's home in Monroeville and an apartment in New York.  She has turned down making speeches, but has accepted honorary degrees.  She arrived in Philadelphia in March 2005, her first time being there since 1960 when she signed with publisher Lippincott.  There, she received an ATTY Award from the Spector Gadon & Rosen Foundation.  After that, she went to Los Angeles, where she accepted the Los Angeles Public Library Literary Award.

In May 2006, Harper Lee accepted an honorary degree given to her by the University of Notre Dame.  The graduating seniors there were given copies of To Kill A Mockingbird before their ceremony, which they held up when Lee received her degree.

Harper Lee wrote a letter to Oprah Winfrey on May 7th, 2006, about her love of books when she was a child.  She also said: "Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books."