To Kill a Mockingbird: Summary The book To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee. It was published in 1960 then it went on to win the Pulitzer prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award winning film. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American Literature. There are so many characters in this book that I can't name all of them. Here are most of the characters. The Finch family contains of Atticus (The head of the household), Aunt Alexandra (Atticus's sister), (Jem) Jeremy (The oldest of Atticus's two children), (Scout)