Which 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was written by Harper Lee?

To Kill a Mockingbird was the 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel written by Harper Lee.

Published in 1960, the novel is narrated by Scout Finch, a child growing up in the fictional Alabama town of Maycomb. Her father, lawyer Atticus Finch, defends Tom Robinson, a Black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. The trial exposes the town’s racial injustice and social divisions.

The novel combines a child’s perspective with serious themes involving racism, morality, empathy, and the law. Its title refers to the idea that harming an innocent creature is morally wrong; the mockingbird becomes a symbol of innocence.

The book became a major school text and was adapted into a 1962 film starring Gregory Peck. It is sometimes confused with Lee’s later novel Go Set a Watchman, published in 2015, which uses some of the same characters but did not win the Pulitzer.