--- title: Harper Lee Photographs at Work on Her Third Novel, 'The Long Goodbye' description: "Go Set a Watchman" is not the only manuscript Lee shelved for many decades. canonical: https://time.com/3742318/harper-lee-alabama/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-12T15:45:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:05:06.274Z og:title: See Harper Lee's Secluded Alabama Life og:description: "Go Set a Watchman" is not the only manuscript Lee shelved for many decades. og:url: https://time.com/3742318/harper-lee-alabama/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt981109e53301b825/6987835535ba6f4403c07862/150312-harper-lee-06.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Harper Lee, 1961 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See Harper Lee's Secluded Alabama Life twitter:description: "Go Set a Watchman" is not the only manuscript Lee shelved for many decades. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt981109e53301b825/6987835535ba6f4403c07862/150312-harper-lee-06.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See Harper Lee's Secluded Alabama Life  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Mar 12, 2015 3:45 PM UTC  Caption from LIFE. At her father's law office where she wrote "Mockingbird," Miss Lee works on her next novel. Caption from LIFE. At her father's law office where she wrote "Mockingbird," Miss Lee works on her next novel.Donald Uhrbrock—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Mar 12, 2015 3:45 PM UTC After many years out of the limelight, Harper Lee is [making headlines](http://time.com/3741697/harper-lees-book-elder-care-abuse/) again thanks to the controversial circumstances surrounding the release of her second novel, _Go Set a Watchman_. Some say the book, which she wrote before her 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning _To Kill a Mockingbird_ and features a grown-up version of _Mockingbird_’s protagonist Scout, is being released without the 88-year-old Lee’s full understanding and consent. When LIFE [profiled Lee](https://books.google.com/books?id=rk8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA77&dq=%22harper+lee%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OZ0BVaGMIYXVggTR1ILYCg&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22harper%20lee%22&f=false) in 1961, she was visiting her hometown of Monroeville, Ala., where she lives today in an assisted living facility. _To Kill a Mockingbird_ had already sold half a million copies, been translated into 10 languages and caught the attention of Hollywood. The film version, starring Gregory Peck, would be released the following year. Lee gave LIFE the Monroeville tour, showing photographer Donald Uhrbrock the courthouse on which she based the one in the book and the porch where she spent time with her father, Amasa Lee, who served as the inspiration for Atticus Finch. Her father was, in Lee’s words, “one of the few men I’ve known who has genuine humility.” Lee also invited LIFE into her father’s law office, where she’d written _Mockingbird_ and was now at work on a third novel. Though the details of that book didn’t make it into the magazine, a 2007 biography says it was to be called _The Long Goodbye_. Lee, whose distaste for publicity is well-documented, abandoned the book after writing only 100 pages. Whether _The Long Goodbye_ is destined for the same fate as _Go Set a Watchman_—surfacing after decades of collecting dust—remains to be seen.  Caption from LIFE. Miss Lee pauses on balcony of local courthouse where she set climactic trial of a Negro who gets railroaded by small-town bigots. "The trial was a composite of all trials in the world - some in the South. But the courthouse was this one. My father's a lawyer, so I grew up in this room, and mostly I watched him from here." Donald Uhrbrock—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Harper Lee visiting her hometown, Monroeville, Alabama, in 1961. Donald Uhrbrock—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Miss Lee inspects old house much like neighborhood mystery house in book. "I remember this as the old Hodge place. Now no one lives here, so a lot of the children call it haunted, and they use it as a clubhouse." Donald Uhrbrock—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Reclining in chaise, she chats with father, Amasa Lee, 80, on screen porch. He was real-life model for her sage hero, Atticus Finch. "My father is one of the few men I've known, who has genuine humility, and it lends him a natural dignity. He has absolutely no ego drive, and so he is one of the most beloved men in this part of the state." Donald Uhrbrock—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. In hometown getup, she ambles in playground of school she once attended. "This was our favorite meeting place during recess and lunch. Here we had our fights, our marble games and hid our love notes." Donald Uhrbrock—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. At her father's law office where she wrote "Mockingbird," Miss Lee works on her next novel. 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