Long-lost Harper Lee novel out in July
Story is set in same town as To Kill A Mockingbird, but 20 years later
Harper Lee, the reclusive author of the beloved best-selling novel To Kill a Mockingbird, will publish a second novel in July, her publisher announced Tuesday.
The recently discovered book, Go Set a Watchman, was completed in the mid-1950s, in the midst of the civil-rights movement. It takes place 20 years after To Kill a Mockingbird.
Though it’s effectively a sequel, Lee actually wrote Go Set a Watchman first. The 304-page novel takes place in the same fictional town, Maycomb, Ala., and unfolds as Scout Finch, the feisty child heroine of To Kill a Mockingbird, returns to visit her father, Atticus.
Lee said in a statement released by her publisher that her editor at the time was taken with Scout’s childhood flashbacks, and told her to write a different novel from Scout’s perspective.
“I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told,” Lee, 88, a native of Monroeville, Ala., said in the statement.
That book became To Kill a Mockingbird, a classic that won the Pulitzer Prize, was adapted into a 1962 film and has sold more than 40 million copies globally since it was published in 1960. It continues to sell more than 1 million copies a year, and has been translated into more than 40 languages.
The novel is set in Alabama during the Depression as the young Scout and her family get swept up in the trial of a black man who is accused of raping a white woman. Scout’s father, Atticus, represents the accused man at trial. The novel explores themes of racial prejudice and injustice as well as love and a young girl’s coming of age.
Lee never published another novel despite pleas and prodding from readers and the literary establishment. She settled into a reclusive life and has rarely given interviews since the 1960s.
She set the earlier book aside and thought the draft had been lost or destroyed. Then last fall, her friend and lawyer, Tonja Carter, discovered the manuscript of Go Set a Watchman in what Lee’s statement said was “a secure location,” attached to an original typescript of To Kill a Mockingbird.
“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,” Lee said in a statement.
Scholars have long been aware that Lee wrote an earlier manuscript, but many thought it was an early version of To Kill a Mockingbird, not a separate story that unfolds decades later. The manuscript was believed to have been lost.
The book’s publisher, Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins, plans to print 2 million copies of the new book, which is set for a July 14 release.
Some observers were skeptical of Lee’s role in approving the deal.
Lee suffered a stroke in 2007 and has been living in an assisted living facility. Her sister, Alice Lee, a lawyer who was her companion and her protector from the prying eyes of the public, died a few months ago.
Marja Mills, who struck up a friendship with the Lee sisters and became their neighbor in 2004, said she wondered about Lee’s level of involvement in the new book deal.
Mills had her own public standoff with Harper Lee over The Mockingbird Next Door, a memoir she published about her friendship with the Lees. When the book was announced, Harper Lee released a statement through a lawyer saying she had not sanctioned the book or knowingly participated in it.
But Alice Lee later wrote to Mills and said both she and Harper Lee, whose first name is Nelle, supported the book. In a letter dated May 12, 2011, Alice Lee told Mills that, “Poor Nelle Harper can’t see and can’t hear and will sign anything put before her by any one in whom she has confidence.”
All of the publisher’s communication with Lee about the new book came through her lawyer, Carter, and her literary agent, Andrew Nurnberg, including the statement she gave expressing her delight that the novel would finally be published, according to Jonathan Burnham, senior vice president and publisher of Harper.
“We talked to her through her lawyer and friend Tonja Carter,” Burnham said, adding that he was “completely confident” that Lee understood and approved of the deal and that speaking directly with Lee “wasn’t necessary.”
The publisher said Lee’s lawyer and literary agent weren’t giving interviews. A receptionist at Carter’s law firm in Monroeville said Carter was “not taking any calls about the news release.”