Harper Lee's singular legacy

With one immortal novel, Harper Lee made a priceless contribution to American culture

Harper Lee on the set of To Kill A Mockingbird
(Image credit: Bettmann/CORBIS)

Harper Lee, author of the beloved American classic To Kill a Mockingbird, has died in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. She was 89.

Harper Lee's preference was that her personal life remain private, so I won't recount her biography here. But there is, of course, one aspect of Lee's legacy that belongs to everyone: To Kill a Mockingbird, the Pulitzer Prize winner that was almost instantly recognized as one of the Great American Novels when it was published in 1960. It was also, in every meaningful sense, the only novel Lee ever published. (Go Set a Watchman — an earlier draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, disingenuously passed off as a "sequel" when it was published under dubious circumstances last year — is, at best, a curiosity suited for literary scholars.)

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Scott Meslow

Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.