Harper Lee letters going to auction

Six letters by “To Kill a Mockingbird” author Harper Lee to one of her closest friends could fetch as much as $250,000 at auction.

Four of the letters date from before “Mockingbird” while Lee was caring for her ailing father, Amasa Coleman Lee, the model for her protagonist Atticus Finch.

The signed and typed letters were written to Lee’s friend, New York architect Harold Caufield, between 1956 and 1961, according to Christie’s, which is selling them today.

In one, she writes about her “stunned” reaction to the huge success of the book, published in 1960 and made into a movie starring Gregory Peck two years later.

“We were surprised, stunned & dazed by the Princeton review,” she wrote. “The procurator of Judea is breathing heavily down my neck – all that lovely, lovely money is going straight to the Bureau of Internal Revenue tomorrow.”

In another letter, she tells Caufield: “Daddy is sitting beside me at the kitchen table. … I found myself staring at his handsome old face, and a sudden wave of panic flashed through me, which I think was an echo of the fear and desolation that filled me when he was nearly dead. It has been years since I have lived with him on a day-to-day basis.”

The sale comes as Lee’s second book, “Go Set a Watchman,” is set to be released in July.

The 89-year-old Lee, who is in declining health and lives in an assisted-living home in Monroeville, Alabama, could not be reached for comment about the sale.

The letters, totaling eight pages, are signed as Nelle, New Hampshire, or with comic pseudonyms, including “The prisoner of Zenda,” a reference to an 1894 novel about a king who is drugged and kidnapped on the eve of his coronation.

Jonas to perform at gay pride event

Nick Jonas is replacing Iggy Azalea as the headline performer at a Pittsburgh gay pride event.

Azalea withdrew from Saturday’s Pride in the Street concert amid criticism for making anti-gay and racist remarks on social media.

Jonas seemed a natural choice to replace Azalea. The 22-year-old former Jonas Brothers frontman has a sizable gay following and plays a gay boxer on the DirecTV series “Kingdom.”

Azalea dropped out as she and the event’s organizer, the Delta Foundation, faced pressure from advocacy groups who said her social media remarks were inconsistent with values of acceptance.

Azalea said she deeply regrets the remarks and that they aren’t reflective of her character and firm belief in equality.

The birthday bunch

Singer Vic Damone is 87. Actor-singer Jim Nabors is 85. Jazz musician Chick Corea is 74. Actor Roger Aaron Brown is 66. Singer Meredith Brooks is 57. Actress Jenilee Harrison is 57. Actress Frances O’Connor is 48. Actor Wil Horneff is 36. Rap group MC Jay Are is 26.