Fifty years ago, Harper Lee had the kind of success that most writers only dream about: Shortly after her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was published on July 11, 1960, it hit the best-seller lists. In 1961, it won a Pulitzer Prize, and in 1962, it was made into an Academy Award-winning film. It has never gone out of print.

Lee stepped out of the limelight and stopped doing interviews years ago — and she never wrote another book. Still, her influence has far outlasted most writers of her generation.