Harper Lee Dies at 89

Nelle Harper Lee has died at the age of 89, AL.com reports.

The reclusive author won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961 for To Kill a Mockingbird. The iconic novel was Lee's only published book for more than 50 years, until Go Set a Watchman, a prequel to Mockingbird, was controversially released in July 2015.

Lee was born April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Ala. to lawyer Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Lee. Lee drew inspiration for To Kill a Mockingbird from what she observed during her childhood growing up in the deep South.

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In 2007, Lee suffered a stroke, which left her in a wheelchair, reportedly forgetful, and nearly blind and deaf. She eventually moved back to Monroeville for good, where her sister Alice still lived.

When the release of Go Set a Watchman was announced last year, a few months after the death of Alice, there were suspicions that Lee's lawyer Tonja Carter was taking advantage of the easily-influenced author, who "will sign anything put before her by anyone in whom she was confidence," according to Alice's admission in 2011.