Harper Lee was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. One of America’s most celebrated and influential writers, she is the author of the acclaimed novels To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman as well as the story and essay collection, The Land of Sweet Forever, published posthumously in 2025. Lee was awarded numerous literary awards and honors including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She died in 2016 at the age of eight-nine.

Casey Cep is at work on the authorized biography of Harper Lee. A staff writer at The New Yorker, she is the author of the bestselling book Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee. She was born and raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where she still lives with her family.