A little bit about Harper Lee from The New York Times An excerpt:
The recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, “To Kill a Mockingbird” remains the only book Ms. Lee has written. It is difficult to overestimate the sustained power of the novel or the reverence with which Ms. Lee is treated here: it is not uncommon to find live staged versions of the story, hear of someone who has devoted his life to playing Atticus Finch in road shows, or meet children named Scout or ones named after the author herself.
At a book signing after the ceremony on Friday afternoon, a little girl in a velvet dress approached Ms. Lee with a hardback copy of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” announcing that her name was Harper. “Well, that’s my name, too,” Ms. Lee said. The girl’s mother, LaDonnah Roberts, said she had decided to make her daughter Ms. Lee’s namesake after her mother-in-law gave her a copy of the book during her pregnancy. Another girl, Catherine Briscoe, 15, one of the essay contest winners, had read the novel six times. She trembled and held her hand to her heart as she spoke of its author: “It was breathtaking to meet the most important person in my life.”
Sandra Bullock plays Ms. Lee in the upcoming Truman Capote flick “Infamous.”