Second Harper Lee Novel to Be Published in July
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"To Kill a Mockingbird" will not be Harper Lee's only published book after all.
Publisher Harper announced Tuesday that "Go Set a Watchman," a novel the
Pulitzer Prize-winning author completed in the 1950s and put aside,
will be released July 14. Rediscovered last fall, "Go Set a Watchman" is
essentially a sequel to "To Kill a Mockingbird," although it was
finished earlier. The 304-page book will be Lee's second, and the first
new work in more than 50 years.
The publisher plans a first printing of 2 million copies.
"In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called 'Go Set a Watchman,'" the
88-year-old Lee said in a statement issued by Harper. "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 realized 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."
Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal was negotiated between
Carter and the head of Harper's parent company, Michael Morrison of
HarperCollins Publishers. "Watchman" will be published in the United Kingdom by William Heinemann, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
According to publisher Harper, Carter came upon the manuscript at a
"secure location where it had been affixed to an original typescript of
'To Kill a Mockingbird.'" The new book is set in Lee's famed Maycomb,
Alabama, during the mid-1950s, 20 years after "To Kill a Mockingbird"
and roughly contemporaneous with the time that Lee was writing the
story. The civil rights movement was taking hold by the time she was
working on "Watchman." The Supreme Court had ruled unanimously in 1953
that segregated schools were unconstitutional, and the arrest of Rosa
Parks in 1955 led to the yearlong Montgomery bus boycott.
"Scout (Jean Louise Finch) has returned to Maycomb from New York to
visit her father, Atticus," the publisher's announcement reads. "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."
Lee herself is a Monroeville, Alabama native who lived in New York in
the 1950s. She now lives in her hometown. According to the publisher,
the book will be released as she first wrote it, with no revisions.
"To Kill a Mockingbird" is among the most beloved novels in history,
with worldwide sales topping 40 million copies. It was released on July
11, 1960, won the Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a 1962 movie of the same name, starring Gregory Peck
in an Oscar-winning performance as the courageous attorney Atticus
Finch. Although occasionally banned over the years because of its
language and racial themes, the novel has become a standard for reading
clubs and middle schools and high schools. The absence of a second book
from Lee only seemed to enhance the appeal of "Mockingbird."
1 comment:
IF there's ever been a must read book, this is it.
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