Harper Lee Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926. She was the youngest of 3 children born to Amasa and Francis Finch Lee. She was born in Monroeville, Alabama. She attended local schools until 1944, at which time, she entered Huntington College in Montgomery, Alabama. She became a Fulbright Scholar and spent a year at Oxford University. She also attended University of Alabama for four years studying law. In 1950, she quit the school and moved to New York City where she worked for Eastern Airlines and British Overseas Air Corporation. She began writing at a young age, but she was never successful at getting any of her literary works published, until her successful novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.