Harper Lee died in 2016 at the age of 89. Her first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, debuted in 1961 with immediate critical success and went on to become an American classic. A movie version starring Gregory Peck opened at the theaters in 1962. Lee did not publish another book until the July 2015 release of Go Set a Watchman. Michael Morrison, her publisher at HarperCollins US, said: “The world knows Harper Lee was a brilliant writer but what many don’t know is that she was an extraordinary woman of great joyfulness, humility and kindness. She lived her life the way she wanted to – in private – surrounded by books and the people who loved her.”