Writer Harper Lee denies taking part in memoir

NEW YORK: American writer Harper Lee, who rose to fame a half-century ago with her first and only novel, “To Kill A Mockingbird,” denied Thursday that she had agreed to take part in a new biography about her life.

“Contrary to recent news reports, I have not willingly participated in any book written or to be written by Marja Mills. Neither have I authorized such a book,” the writer said in a statement.

“Any claims otherwise are false,” Lee, 85, said in reference to the as-yet unpublished “The Mockingbird Next Door,” by former Chicago Tribune reporter Marja Mills.

News reports earlier this week said that Mills’ book had been written with the cooperation of Lee, as well as the writer’s family and friends.

The reclusive author rarely speaks to the media, and reportedly has said that she never wrote a follow-up to “To Kill A Mockingbird” because she feared she could never equal the success that she had with that 1960 classic about racism in the pre-Civil Rights era South.

Mills’ biography is to be published by Penguin Press, which announced earlier this week that it had acquired the work.