To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960. Harper Lee's novel was released in the United States by J. B. Lippincott & Co. on July 11, 1960.
The book began as a much less developed manuscript connected with an earlier project later associated with Go Set a Watchman. Editor Tay Hohoff worked with Lee for several years, helping reshape the material into the finished novel about Scout Finch, her brother Jem, and their father, Atticus.
Despite warnings that it might sell only a few thousand copies, the novel became an immediate success and has never gone out of print. Its setting draws on Lee's childhood in Monroeville, Alabama, and on a 1936 event near her hometown.
Readers sometimes confuse the publication year with the 1962 film adaptation, starring Gregory Peck, or with the year Lee received the Pulitzer Prize. The novel came first; the film followed two years later, and the Pulitzer recognition came in 1961.