Fifty-five years after To Kill a Mockingbird first appeared in bookstores, Harper Lee has announced that a sequel to her modern classic will be published this July.
The reclusive author wrote Go Set a Watchman, her first novel, in the midst of the 1950s civil rights movement. Taking place in the same Alabama town, the story focuses on a grown-up Scout’s return home to visit her father Atticus, with flashbacks to her childhood. An editor at the time suggested that Lee write a different novel focusing on the events of Scout’s childhood from her point of view, which became To Kill a Mockingbird.
“I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told,” she recalled.
Mockingbird won Lee the Pulitzer Prize, was adapted into a beloved film, and has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.
The manuscript for Go Set a Watchman was long considered lost, but was suddenly found last fall by one of Lee’s friends.
“After much thought and hesitation I shared it with a handful of people I trust,” said Lee, “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.”
[via NY Times]
