Seven things you need to know about 'To Kill a Mockingbird' author Harper Lee

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird became one of the most beloved books in US literary history. Harper Lee, who wrote one of America's most enduring literary classics, To Kill a Mockingbird, about a child's view of right and wrong and waited 55 years to publish a second book with the same characters from a very different point of view, has died at the age of 89.

Here are seven facts about Lee:

* She went by Harper, her middle name, because she was afraid her first name, Nelle, would be mispronounced as "Nellie," not "Nell."

* Lee based the "To Kill a Mockingbird" character Dill on childhood friend Truman Capote, who in turn used her as the basis for a character in his "Other Voices, Other Rooms."

* "To Kill a Mockingbird," published in 1960, won the Pulitzer Prize the following year, but Conrad Richter's "The Waters of Kronos" beat her out for the National Book Award.

* Lee's fans were stunned to learn 55 years after publication of the novel of a long-stashed manuscript written before "To Kill a Mockingbird" and even more stunned that Atticus, the hero of the first book, was portrayed as a segregationist in "Go Set a Watchman." Atticus was based on Lee's father.

* Lee and actor Gregory Peck became friends during the filming of "To Kill a Mockingbird." She remained close to his family and Peck's grandson, Harper Peck Voll, is named for her.

* "To Kill a Mockingbird" created a cottage industry in her hometown, Monroeville, Alabama, with a museum dedicated to it, although Lee filed a lawsuit claiming it was selling unlicensed merchandise, such as "To Kill a Mockingbird" beverage coasters.

* Actresses Sandra Bullock ("Infamous" in 2006) and Catherine Keener ("Capote" in 2005) portrayed Lee in movies about the writing of Capote's "In Cold Blood."