Good news for fans of one of the most seminal books of our time:
Harper Lee, author of the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, is to publish a second book 55 years after her debut.
Her publisher, Harper, announced that the second book, Go Set a Watchman, will be released on 14 July.
The book is described as essentially a sequel for To Kill a Mockingbird, and was completed just a few years after the seminal novel – but the manuscript lay forgotten until recently.
Harper said they will print an initial run of two million copies as they expect huge demand for the book, which they described as a “remarkable literary event”.
“In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called Go Set a Watchman,” the 88-year-old Lee said. “It features the character known as Scout as an adult woman, and I thought it a pretty decent effort.
“My editor, who was taken by the flashbacks to Scout’s childhood, persuaded me to write a novel (what became To Kill a Mockingbird) from the point of view of the young Scout.
“I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told. I hadn’t realised it (the original book) had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it.
“After much thought and hesitation, I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication. I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years.”
Harper said the plot of the book involves Scout returning to Maycomb from New York to visit her father, Atticus Finch.
A spokesperson added: “She is forced to grapple with issues both personal and political as she tries to understand her father’s attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she was born and spent her childhood.”
If Go Set a Watchman was written first how could it be a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird?
Wasn’t To Kill a Mockingbird based on the events of the 1949 Groveland, Florida rape case? Sheriff Willis McCall, et al.
Didn’t Harper live next door to Truman Capote as a child?
I wonder if anyone will name a drink after this new/old novel.
This new work could be great, we’ll just have to wait and see. More troubling to me is the sequence of events surrounding its release. Ms. Lee’s sister was her attorney all of her life. During which time she protected Harper from the glare of ‘stardom’ and Harper’s determination for the subject story NOT to be published. Sister Lee died only a few months ago, and immediately we are told by the publisher and now quite elderly Ms. Lee’s new attorney of this book’s release. Maybe it’s a sign of the times or maybe I’m just another conspiracy nut, but something about it smells.
You know what smells Ron speaking of conspiracies?
The King of Jordan arrives on Monday, visits Obama on Tuesday and all of a sudden a video is released of the captured Jordanian pilot being burned at the stake by ISIS. Now mind you the pilot was killed a month ago and the people in the streets of Jordan had been hearing rumors about the pilots death for weeks.
But the weirdest thing of all is that the NSA and the CIA claim that they did not know anything about the video tape before yesterday.
It seems like the NSA and the CIA know everything about everything except for what’s actually happening.
So what are they spending those billions of taxpayer dollars on?