Harper Lee, the ultra-reclusive author of To Kill a Mockingbird, will publish her SECOND book this summer. Go Set a Watchman was completed in the 1950s, but set aside by the writer, who went on to win the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for the only novel she ever published.
Lee’s publisher, Harper, issued a statement this morning, in which the author said:
In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called Go Set a Watchman. 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 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.
Oh yeah. The most important part of the story: Go Set a Watchman, is a sequel! It’ll feature Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird as an adult woman! (Way to bury the lede, James)
From the BBC:
Set in the fictional southern town of Maycomb during the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman sees Scout return from New York to visit her father, the lawyer Atticus Finch.
According to the publisher’s announcement: “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.”
Harper Collins plans an initial print run of two million copies.
To Kill a Mockingbird was published in July 1960 and won a Pulitzer Prize. Two years later it was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Gregory Peck.
Lee has rarely spoken to the media since the 1960s and is unlikely to do any publicity for her “new” book.
‘Extraordinary gift’
In a statement, Harper Collins’ Jonathan Burnham called Go Set a Watchman “a remarkable literary event” whose “discovery is an extraordinary gift to the many readers and fans of To Kill a Mockingbird“.
He said: “Reading in many ways like a sequel to Harper Lee’s classic novel, it is a compelling and ultimately moving narrative about a father and a daughter’s relationship, and the life of a small Alabama town living through the racial tensions of the 1950s.”
Go Set a Watchman will be published in the UK by William Heinemann, the original UK publisher of To Kill a Mockingbird.
Tom Weldon, of parent company Penguin Random House, said its publication would be “a major event”.
“The story of this first book – both parent to To Kill a Mockingbird and rather wonderfully acting as its sequel – is fascinating,” he continued.
“Millions of fans around the world will have the chance to reacquaint themselves with Scout, her father Atticus and the prejudices and claustrophobia of that small town in Alabama Harper Lee conjures so brilliantly.”
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