'To Kill a Mockingbird' was written by Harper Lee, an American novelist. The novel was published in 1960 and it became an instant classic. Harper Lee won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961 for her work. The novel is often studied in schools and universities because of its themes of racial inequality, injustice, and morality. Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama, and died on February 19, 2016. She is considered one of the most important figures in modern American literature.