'To Kill a Mockingbird' author Harper Lee dies: Official
AFP
February 19, 2016 00:21 MYT
February 19, 2016 00:21 MYT
A May 19, 2005 file photo of Lee attending the reception prior to the Library Foundation of Los Angeles 2005 Awards Dinner honouring her at the Richard J. Riordan Central Library in Los Angeles, California. - AFP Photo/Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images
American novelist Harper Lee, famous for the masterpiece "To Kill a Mockingbird" and for shunning the fame it brought her, has died aged 89, officials in her hometown said Friday.
A spokeswoman for the town of Monroeville, Alabama, where Lee spent her final years living in seclusion, confirmed local media reports of her death, saying: "She did pass away."
Lee's 1960 novel, which earned her a Pulitzer Prize, came to define racial injustice in the Depression-era South and became standard reading in classrooms across the world.