The Life of Author Harper Lee Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, to parents Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee. Lee is the youngest of four children. She grew up in a small town in Alabama called Monroeville. When Lee was a child she was a tomboy and read a lot. Lee and her childhood friend Truman Capote, who provided the basis of the character Dill in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, enjoyed many of the same adventures that took place in the novel. In fact, many of the characters in Lee’s novel were based upon many people in her own life. Lee’s father, a southern lawyer, was a big influ