NEW YORK, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Harper Lee has agreed to settle a lawsuit in New York over the copyright of her classic novel "To Kill a Mockingbird," a lawyer says.
Vincent Carissimi, representing the defendants, told the New York Post there is a settlement agreement in principle. He said he expects the entire lawsuit to be dismissed once the details are worked out.
Lee, now 87, accused Samuel Pinkus, a lawyer and son-in-law of her former agent, of getting her to sign over the rights to her novel, an action she now says she does not remember. The lawsuit also named Pinkus' wife, Lee Ann Winick, and Gerald Posner, a journalist who left the Daily Beast in 2010 amidst a plagiarism scandal, as defendants.
Lee's lawyer filed a notice in federal court Thursday dismissing Lee Ann Winick and Posner as defendants, Courthouse News reported.
Nelle Harper Lee -- her full legal name -- published "To Kill a Mocking Bird" in 1961. The book was a best-seller, won a Pulitzer Prize and was made into a movie starring Gregory Peck.
Since then, she has published almost nothing, although she helped her childhood friend Truman Capote do the research for his book, "In Cold Blood." In recent years, she has lived quietly in Monroeville, Ala.
