36 The Gift That Wrote a Classic

Before To Kill a Mockingbird became a Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, Harper Lee was a reservation agent in New York City, quietly writing in the margins of her life. Then came a Christmas gift unlike any other—a full year’s salary from two friends who believed in her dream. That single act of generosity gave her the time and space to write a novel that would change American literature forever. Sometimes, the smallest acts of belief can lead to the biggest legacies