Long lost sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird set to publish in July
HarperCollins set to publish sequel to "To Kill a Mockingbird"
Come July, “To Kill a Mockingbird” will not be the only book found on the shelves by author Harper Lee. Once believed to have been lost, the original manuscript for “Go Set a Watchman” was discovered affixed to a typescript of “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Lee’s attorney Tonja Carter.
A sequel to “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Go Set a Watchman” finds Scout as an adult having returned to Maycomb, Alabama to visit her father Atticus, and much like it’s predecessor, tells the tale of their relationship in the small town of Maycomb during a racially-charged period in American history.
Lee completed “Go Set a Watchman”in the mid-1950s, but put it aside as “To Kill a Mockingbird” set a path to become a literary classic, and “Go Set a Watchman” was never revisited. “I hadn’t realized it had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it,” said Lee, “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.”
According to her publisher HarperCollins, Lee, now 88-years-old, is not expected to engage in press activity surrounding the release of the book. She has stayed out of the spotlight most of her life, and last spoke to the press in the 1960s. At that time, she expressed her desire “to leave some record of small-town, middle-class Southern life.” Now she will have two novels that will do just that.
“Go Set a Watchman” will be released as both a book and e-book.