Harper Lee leaves behind questions about her life and work

However, in 2015, decades after her debut, Lee’s second novel, “Go Set a Watchman”, was published.

Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, who was released in January from an Iranian prison after he was charged with espionage and other serious crimes, said on Twitter that “To Kill a Mockingbird” helped him get through his trial.

Lee and actor Gregory Peck became friends during the filming of “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Reporters flocked once again to Monroeville, hoping to catch a glimpse of the town’s most celebrated resident, who spent her later years in a nursing home.

Lee, who died on Friday at 89 in her hometown Monroeville, Ala., is being remembered not only by figures in the publishing industry, but by those who were touched by her career and her friendship.

To Kill A Mockingbird “needs no introduction – because it is the introduction, for most American children, to civil rights, literature, and the justice system”, Boris Kachka wrote for Vulture in 2014. But, you know, by the same token, we’d like it to happen because we have a white hero, you know, and not from a black hero.

One angel nudges another, urging her to stand up, and says, “Harper Lee is passing”.

Lee was loyal to the store, Upchurch said. President Barack Obama bestowed on the author the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given by the United States government for “outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support and availability of the arts”.

Writer and director Aaron Sorkin, who is adapting “To Kill a Mockingbird” as a Broadway play, said, “Like millions of others, I was saddened to learn this morning of the passing of Harper Lee, one of America’s most beloved authors”.

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird does just that through the characters she developed.

In a move that will likely remain forever controversial, Lee was encouraged to finally publish a sequel to “Mockingbird”, “Go Set A Watchman”.

“She had her own significant impact on our country and our culture, and on our country’s perspective on some pretty sensitive topics”, said spokesman Josh Earnest. They maintained that friendship into adulthood and collaborated on Capote’s book In Cold Blood, a nonfiction classic based on the murders of a Kansas farmer and his family.

Most critics did not like “Go Set a Watchman”.

But for most of her life, Lee stayed out of the spotlight.

Author Stephen King (@StephenKing) honored not only Lee’s work but the influence her talent had on another famed author.