Harper Lee letters offer candid takes on religion, family

NEW YORK – Harper Lee, the most media shy of writers, was not shy about expressing herself in private.

Six letters donated to Emory University and being made public Monday show the author lamenting the conservative values of her native Monroeville, Alabama, and longing to go back in New York. They also reflect her deep compassion for her father, A.C. Lee, the basis for the famous fictional lawyer Atticus Finch.

The letters were written from the mid-1950s to the early ’60s. During that time she wrote “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the novel released near the end of her life, “Go Set a Watchman.”