--- title: Harper Lee's Forgotten Sense of Humor description: The iconic American author has died at 89 canonical: https://time.com/4230546/harper-lee-pulitzer-prize-humor/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-19T17:55:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:13:21.799Z article:section: History og:title: Harper Lee's Forgotten Sense of Humor og:description: The iconic American author has died at 89 og:url: https://time.com/4230546/harper-lee-pulitzer-prize-humor/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt177d67d6573facf9/69887e5ce20a871b27a8fa0c/harper-lee.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Harper Lee og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Harper Lee's Forgotten Sense of Humor twitter:description: The iconic American author has died at 89 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt177d67d6573facf9/69887e5ce20a871b27a8fa0c/harper-lee.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Harper Lee's Forgotten Sense of Humor > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 19, 2016 5:55 PM UTC  A March 14, 1963, photo of Harper Lee A March 14, 1963, photo of Harper Lee AP  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 19, 2016 5:55 PM UTC Remembrances of _To Kill a Mockingbird_ author Harper Lee, [who has died at 89](http://time.com/4230580/harper-lee-to-kill-mockingbird-dies-89/), are likely to focus on what has become the central narrative of her life: that she wrote one novel to tremendous success, withdrew from public life and lived largely in [seclusion.](http://time.com/3742318/harper-lee-alabama) That narrative was underscored last year when she surprised the world with the release a second novel, _Go Set a Watchman_, which had [a fascinating backstory ](http://time.com/3935261/harper-lees-second-success)of its own. It’s easy to see why that narrative captivates fans of Lee’s writing, and it’s certainly an important part of her biography—but it can often overshadow another element of her personality, one that was well known in the years before she became more reluctant to engage with her own celebrity. Harper Lee was funny. In fact, one of her first forays into writing was for the campus humor magazine at the University of Alabama, [_Rammer Jammer_](http://acumen.lib.ua.edu/u0002%5F0000001). She eventually became editor. (Many full issues, including those she edited,[ can be read at the University of Alabama library website](http://acumen.lib.ua.edu/u0002%5F0000001?page=1)—though not all of the humor holds up more than a half-century later.) And in the months after the [1960 release of _To Kill a Mockingbird_,](http://time.com/3693680/to-kill-a-mockingbird-review/) she was known as a “[modest, easygoing](http://time.com/vault/issue/1961-05-12/page/30/)” writer who possessed a “[delightful, down-to-earth humor](https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19610503&id=-hUfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=B5oEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5289,240391&hl=en).” Her interviews were sprinkled with quips that proved the point: When Lee was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her first novel, [TIME quoted her as saying ](http://time.com/vault/issue/1961-05-12/page/30/)that it was “handsome recompense for ‘the long and hopeless period of writing the book over and over'” and that she had written much of the book in a surprising place: “In Monroeville \[Ala.\], well, they’re Southern people, and if they know you are working at home they think nothing of walking right in for coffee,” she said. “But they wouldn’t dream of interrupting you on the golf course.” _Order LIFE’s new special edition,_ The Enduring Legacy of Harper Lee and _To Kill a Mockingbird,_ [_available on_ ](http://amzn.to/1ozqNnQ)[_Amazon._](http://amzn.to/1ozqNnQ) When her book was called “immoral” by a Virginia school board shortly after the Pulitzer announcement, she sent a contribution to the [Beadle Bumble Fund ](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,835072-1,00.html)(a sort of Darwin Awards of philanthropic giving) [so that it could be used](https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19660116&id=a-shAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DJsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3286,2123658&hl=en) “to enroll the Hanover County School Board in any first grade of its choice.” About a year later—ironically, in retrospect—she [joked](https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=20060521&id=7JEpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=06cEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6693,2094277&hl=en) with reporters that her second book was coming along so slowly that she hoped she lived to see it published. In [the same interview](http://www.amazon.com/Mockingbird-Portrait-Harper-Childhood-Watchman/dp/0805083197#reader%5F0805083197), she was asked whether she’d encountered anyone who thought the name “Harper Lee” belonged to a man. “Yes. Recently I received an invitation to speak at Yale University, and was told I could stay in the men’s dormitory. But I declined that part of the invitation,” she said with a smile. “With reluctance.” Her sense of humor, however, was not distinct from the straightforward goodness that made her books appeal to so many generations of readers. Rather, it was just one more tool for speaking truth to power. “Friends and former classmates at the University remember her as a warm though independent-minded girl,” one report on her Pulitzer win [declared](https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1842&dat=19610504&id=hgQsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rMYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2752,469103&hl=en), “who took great delight in deflating phoniness wherever it appeared.” And, though _Mockingbird_‘s heart and sense of justice have rightful pride of place in its fame, Lee’s sense of humor is there too—not in conflict with the serious subject matter, but rather underlining its reality. After all, she [said](https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1842&dat=19610504&id=hgQsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rMYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2752,469103&hl=en) in 1961, “humor has its roots in something that’s not funny at all.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4230546/harper-lee-pulitzer-prize-humor/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4230546/harper-lee-pulitzer-prize-humor/"},"headline":"Harper Lee's Forgotten Sense of Humor","datePublished":"2016-02-19T17:55:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:13:21.799Z","description":"The iconic American author has died at 89","url":"https://time.com/4230546/harper-lee-pulitzer-prize-humor/","keywords":["remembrance","Books","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt177d67d6573facf9/69887e5ce20a871b27a8fa0c/harper-lee.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt177d67d6573facf9/69887e5ce20a871b27a8fa0c/harper-lee.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Harper Lee","caption":"Harper Lee","creditText":"AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4230546/harper-lee-pulitzer-prize-humor/","name":"Harper Lee's Forgotten Sense of Humor"}}]}] ```