“To Kill a Mockingbird” author Harper Lee to publish a Sequel

To Kill a Mockingbird is Harper Lee’s first and only novel, published in 1960 it immediately won a Pulitzer Prize and since then it has become known as a tale of classic modern literature. Now 88-year-old author Harper Lee is set to publish a sequel to her first book that will hit bookstores coming July 14th!

The new novel is going to be called Go Set a Watchmen and the events of it will be set 20 years after those of To Kill a Mockingbird.

In a statement Lee 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 (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.”

When Harper Lee’s lawyer and close friend, Tonja Carter went combing through Lee’s archives to make sure the original manuscript for Lee’s Pulitzer winning novel, what she discovered shocked her and the rest of the literary world; the manuscript of a whole second novel.

Go Set a Watchman is 304 pages and will receive no revisions. It was reportedly written before Mockingbird, which was published in 1960.

According to the publisher’s synopsis, “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.”

This of course is HUGE news for fans of To Kill a Mockingbird and I for once cannot wait to hit the selves this July 14.