Harper Lee to Publish Second Novel

Publishers Lunch

The AP reported on Tuesday that HarperCollins will issue Harper Lee's second novel, GO SET A WATCHMAN, on July 14, with a planned first printing of 2 million copies. The book is "essentially a sequel" to TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, though it was written first. The 304-page book was "rediscovered last fall."

The 88-year-old Lee says in a statement: "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 (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."

Harper says that Carter found the manuscript in a "secure location where it had been affixed to an original typescript of 'To Kill a Mockingbird.'" The book will be published in the UK by Heinemann.

The story is set in Maycomb, Alabama, during the mid-1950s, 20 years after "To Kill a Mockingbird." The publisher says: "Scout (Jean Louise Finch) has returned to Maycomb from New York to visit her father, Atticus. 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."

And from Flavorwire:

Harper Lee Will Publish ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Sequel in July

By Jonathon Sturgeon on Feb 3, 2015 

In what is surely the publishing event of the year, the publisher Harper has announced that Harper Lee’s second