Reclusive author Harper Lee has come out of the dark. Picture: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images Source: Getty Images
THE book that has taken the literary world by storm over the past 24 hours lay dormant for almost sixty years. So why is it being published now?
Harper Lee, author of the classic 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird, announced via a statement overnight that Go Set a Watchmen will be released on July 14.
But the announcement posed as many questions as it answered about the reclusive author and why she chose to publish now, at age 88, after all these years.
The death of her sister Alice might hold the answer.
Gregory Peck starred in the movie of the same name Source: News Limited
To Kill A Mockingbird won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961 Source: Supplied
Why did Harper Lee agree to publish Go Set a Watchmen after all these years? Source: AP
304 PAGES THAT MAY HAVE NEVER BEEN READ
The 304-page book will be Lee’s second, and the first new work in more than 50 years. The publisher, Harper Collins, plans a first printing of two million copies.
Lee explained her decision to publish after so many years in a statement released overnight.
“In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called Go Set a Watchman,” the 88-year-old Lee said.
“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.
The circumstances behind Harper Lee 's new book are suspicious. She isn't in the best mental and physical health, after all.
— Antonio Byrd (@antoniowrites) February 3, 2015 Is anyone else scared that Harper Lee is like senile and being scammed or is it just me
— Connor McNeish (@cjaymick) February 3, 2015 “I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told. I hadn’t realised (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.”
Michael Morrison, president and publisher of HarperCollins US General Books Group said in a statement that he “always wished Harper Lee had written another book”.
He got his wish.
Harper Lee’s first book inspired the film To Kill a Mockingbird in 1962. Source: Supplied
‘LEE FOUND HERSELF BEING SWINDLED REPEATEDLY’
Harper Lee kept to herself following the success of her first novel, despite demands from the public to advance her resume. Forty million copies of the book would be sold, but a second book was not forthcoming. Much of that reportedly had to do with her sister Alice who, until her death late last year, kept Harper shielded from the advances of publishers.
Blogger Zois Wells wrote what many were thinking. “To a cynic, it seems all a little too coincidental that soon after the woman who’d kept her out of trouble for so long died, Harper Lee signed an agreement to release a manuscript she’d forgot for nearly sixty years,” she wrote.
The more I think about the "new" Harper Lee novel, the more uneasy & suspicious I get.
— Lilith Saintcrow (@lilithsaintcrow) February 3, 2015 Alice Lee dies and 3 months later a 60 year old book that Harper never wanted to publish before is "discovered"? Maybe I'm too cynical.
— be shrill, my heart (@theshrillest) February 3, 2015 “Harper Lee found herself being swindled repeatedly by the publishing industry and by those around her, it was Alice Lee who kept her from signing things she didn’t fully understand.”
The New York Times reported Alice, a lawyer, was Lee’s “companion and her protector from the prying eyes of the public.”
Jezebel suggested Alice’s death “(left) the intensely private author (who herself is reportedly in ill health) vulnerable to people who may not have her best interests at heart”.
Financial terms of the deal between Lee and her publisher were not disclosed but her publisher admitted he did not speak directly with Lee.
“We talked to her through her lawyer and friend Tonja Carter,” Jonathan Burnham, senior vice president of Harper said.
'In Cold Blood' by Truman Capote. Source: Supplied
Author Truman Capote in New York, October 10, 1955. Picture: Richard Avedon Source: Supplied
WAS TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD PENNED BY A ‘GHOST WRITER’?
The release of Go Set a Watchman is expected to reignite speculation that Lee’s first novel was “ghost written” by her childhood friend Truman Capote, who would go on to write a number of books including Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958) before his death in 1984.
The pair grew up together in Monroeville, Alabama, where they were neighbours. One of the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird was even based on him.
Later in life, Lee helped Capote pen his bestseller In Cold Blood. But some have suggested Capote played a larger role in Lee’s first novel than either author would admit and the release of her next book could help dispel the theory.
CNBC asked “If she was such a great writer why would she be one-and-done?
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