To Kill A Mockingbird Author Harper Lee Dies Aged 89

Honorary: Then-President George Bush presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to author Harper Lee in 2007 at a ceremony at the White House

Harper Lee, the elusive Pulitzer Prize-winning author, has died aged 89, just seven months after the release of Go Set A Watchman, the controversial sequel of To Kill A Mockingbird. 

Daily Mail UK report continues:

The celebrated writer, who was unmarried and had no children, had been confined to a nursing home for years in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, after her sight and hearing were deeply affected by a stroke in 2007.

According to a statement by her publisher, HarperCollins, Lee died peacefully in her sleep on Thursday, though an official cause of death has not been released. 

Tributes began pouring in for the novelist on Friday, with the likes of George W. Bush, Oprah Winfrey and Apple CEO Tim Cook sending their condolences to her last remaining relatives.

Hank Conner, Lee's oldest nephew and the family spokesperson, said in a statement on Friday: 'This is a sad day for our family. America and the world knew Harper Lee as one of the last century's most beloved authors. We knew her as Nelle Harper Lee, a loving member of our family, a devoted friend to the many good people who touched her life, and a generous soul in our community and our state. We will miss her dearly.'

The statement added: 'Ms. Lee passed away in her sleep early this morning. Her passing was unexpected. She remained in good basic health until her passing.'

As per her request, Lee's funeral will be private, Conner said.

The classic and the bestseller: Go Set A Watchman was the best-selling book of 2015, moving 1.6 million copies following its release in July, 55 years after To Kill A Mockingbird 

Lee only ever made a handful of public appearances and has rarely granted interviews since 1964, when she retreated from the spotlight in the wake of Mockingbird's overwhelming success.

No details about her will or who stands to inherit her substantial estate have yet been released. She never married and had no children, although has two nephews. 

Lee had been making about US$3.2million a year, according to Bloomberg, and had an estimated net worth of US$35million, but that was calculated before the release of Watchman.When Watchman was released last July, Forbes estimated that Lee stood to earn US$10 million from the book in 2015.

The website also cited legal papers filed against her former book agent, Sam Pinkus, that showed, in the first six months of 2009, Lee received US$1,688,064.68 in royalties from To Kill A Mockingbird.

Estimating that as an average figure, the book royalties would equate to US$3,376,129.39 per year, or US$9,249 each day.

Lee also created Mockingbord Company, a nonprofit in May 2015 to oversee the book's cultural legacy and any future stage adaptations of the play. Aaron Sorkin, the writer of The West Wing, announced earlier this year he was adapting a play for Broadway.

Raley L. Wiggins, an estate planning attorney in Montgomery, Alabama, 100 miles away from Monroeville, told The International Business Times that Lee's death had left more questions than answers. 

'It might be the people you suspect, or she might've left it all to the cat or all to charity,' Wiggins said. 'We just don't know.'

Lee was born Nelle Harper Lee on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, the youngest of four children of lawyer Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee.

She was known to family and friends as Nelle.

Lee's older sister Alice, who lived with her in the nursing home, The Meadows, died in November 2014, aged 103.

She once described her sister as 'Atticus in a skirt', referring to her beloved Mockingbird character Atticus Finch, who was believed to have been inspired by their father.

Accounts of Lee's mental and physical state have been contradictory over the last few years, but they intensified in February last year, after publisher HarperCollins announced her second-ever book, Go Set a Watchman, was to be released in July.

Lee wrote the book in the 1950s and submitted it to publishers before To Kill A Mockingbird, but it was turned down.

It is considered her earliest work, but is set 20 years after Mockingbird.

The manuscript was presumed lost, according to reports, but was controversially found in 2014 in a safety deposit box by her lawyer, Tonja B. Carter, alongside the original Mockingbird manuscript.