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Harper Lee: Life of a Writer 5 graduate from law school, nor did she receive an undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama. The Move to New York City and Reconnection with Truman Capote Soon after her return from England to Alabama for the fall semester, Nelle Harper made up her mind in 1949 to move to New York City and write. There she lived for a time in a tiny, cold-water flat. She worked at various jobs in the city, briefly in a bookstore but for most of the time as an airline reservation clerk, first for Eastern Airlines and then British Overseas Airways, leaving her little time to write. This would begin a 58-year residency in the city of her choice. For 40 of those years she lived on East 82nd Street. In May of 1951, she returned to Alabama for several months when her mother became very ill and was admitted to a Selma Hospital, where she died a few months later on June 2nd. Truman Capote had established himself on the literary scene there the year before with the publication of Other Voices, Other Rooms. One of his characters, the tomboyish little girl, Idabel, is based in part on his old friend. In Capote’s book is the observation by one adult character that Idabel is a freak whom she has never seen in a dress. Nelle Harper is also a character in his “The Thanksgiving Visitor.” She and Capote remained friends, linked by their childhoods, but they did not move in the same circles in the city. He cultivated posh, socially prominent friends. Nelle Harper was not a party person like he was. She was embraced by a different set of friends, most important among them Joy and Michael Brown, to whom she was introduced by Truman Capote, whose mother, Nina Faulk, very much a New York socialite, partier, and South- erner, was acquainted with Michael. These successful New York City artists had an immense influence on Nelle Harper’s life. Michael was a famous Broadway composer, lyricist, performer, director, and producer. Joy was an equally well-known ballerina who had been invited by George Balanchine to join the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Until Nelle Harper’s death on Feb- ruary 19, 2016, Joy remained her closest friend, even taking care of Nelle Harper after her stroke in 2007, and visiting her regularly in Alabama. Publishing Her Novel It was Michael Brown who introduced Nelle Harper to literary agents Annie Laurie Williams and Williams’s husband, Maurice Crain. Crain convinced Nelle Harper to turn from her short stories to a novel,