Harper Lee publishing 2nd novel

Apparently we'll get to hear more about Scout all these year's after To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee has a sequel of sorts coming out in July:

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/harper-lee-published-july-28687808

I just heard this. Walk away from the computer for a few minutes and the bookternet explodes.

I for one am really excited. What's really interesting is that this was apparently the first story she wrote, before being convinced by her editors to focus, instead, on Scout's childhood—that brought us To Kill a Mockingbird.

From the BBC via Twitter:
""Possible Harper Lee 2nd novel titles: The Mockingbird Strikes Back, To Kill Another Mockingbird, To Seriously Injure A Woodpecker."

Lots of fun to be had with that, even thought he title is already known. Excellent news.

I feel like this is a sign of the end times, or something.

Yes, someone has already added the title on LT

Go Set a Watchman: A Novel

I think she is excited about it being published too! I'll be sure to get my name down early on the library requests list :)

There is talk that the publication of this book is evidence of Harper being taken advantage of. The author of this Jezebel article posits that it's suspicious that this is coming about after the death of Alice, Harper's protective oldest sister and lawyer, who shielded Harper from the media and publishers in their later life. I feel like since Harper's new lawyer was chosen with her sister's input and works at the firm where Alice practiced, surely she isn't out to take advantage. I guess time will tell.

I, for one, will be reading this even if it's publishing story is a bit suspect.

Re:6,

I clicked and see if I'd like it or not. And the prediction came out as : LibraryThing thinks you won't like Go Set a Watchman: A Novel (prediction confidence: very low) Oh, how can it be so low...

From Waterstones (UK national chain bookstore) promoting the books they have this quote from HL herself:

"Harper Lee says: "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 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 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."
"

Which is a little bit more reassuring.

Don't worry Yamanekotei, mine was also low, but I think it is just because there weren't any reviews yet to base the prediction on. Besides, I'm going to read it anyway. Nothing could keep me from it after all these years.

>11 morningwalker:

Besides, I'm going to read it anyway. Nothing could keep me from it after all these years.

Yes, it's exactly what I was thinking!

> 10

Reassuring? When is she supposed to have said this? To whom is she supposed to have said it?

After that alleged biography came out, she denied co-operating with the journalist, and her sister, Alice, said that she was basically non compos mentis. Of course, now that Alice has died . . .

I'm not sure that I trust this.

#1 on Amazon (To Kill a Mockingbird is #2):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/ref=sv_b_2

>13 lilithcat: I was thinking the same thing. The quote in >10 reading_fox: is awfully clear for someone who is deaf, blind, and suffering from dementia. It sounds rather like news release boilerplate.

>13 lilithcat:, >15 Morphidae: According to one friend, "Harper Lee is hard of hearing, but sound of mind"

http://www.npr.org/2015/02/04/383854514/harper-lees-friend-says-author-is-hard-o...

Her friend Wayne Flynt and his wife visit her about once a month, most recently on Monday, the day before news of the new book broke. "I understand from a friend that she was supposed to tell me but she forgot about it and I certainly didn't ask," Flynt says.

"She knows what she likes, who she likes, what she doesn't like. Mainly, she doesn't like people to disturb her and interrupt her privacy and probe in her personal business."

They did talk about a lot of other things. According to Flynt, Lee can still quote long passages of Shakespeare from memory and discuss the complete works of C.S. Lewis. She can still write and she reads voraciously, using a giant magnifying machine. He says Lee is hard of hearing but sound of mind.

"Does she understand what's going on? If you make her hear, she can understand what's going on," he says. "Can she give informed consent? Absolutely, she can give informed consent. She knows what she likes, who she likes, what she doesn't like. Mainly, she doesn't like people to disturb her and interrupt her privacy and probe in her personal business."

And Flynt is willing to give Lee's lawyer the benefit of the doubt. "That interplay is an interplay totally beyond my knowledge and totally beyond anybody else's knowledge," he says. "That is: No one was in the room with the lawyer and Lee at the time any of these negotiations or signings went on. And so, until someone shows me some evidence and not some rumor, I have no reason to doubt the lawyer's concern about what is best for Harper Lee."

As accounts go, it does little to clear the air. It's hard to imagine forgetting to tell a friend about the book being published, but it is also true, as he points out, that we weren't in the room when the deal was signed.

I've always understood that Lee's adamant resistance to publishing again came from a wish for privacy more than from a desire to control her legacy. Perhaps she feels safely immune from the clamor now -- it's not like she'll be doing any book tours. Far be it from me to deny an old woman the right to change her mind.

ETA: Well, here's what some other friends have to say that is not so comforting:

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/02/friends_say_harper_lee_was_man.html

"She had a stroke several years ago and her mind is not in a condition to make these decisions, I don't think, personally. Tonja Carter doesn't allow her to see her friends anymore. She's isolated her from the world in order to manipulate her."

The restaurateur says she used to frequently serve the Lee sisters potato soup in her quirky eatery until two years ago, when the author -- whose friends call by her first name, Nelle -- stopped by for the last time, by that point requiring a wheelchair to get around.

I will probably read this book, if not for curiosity alone, I also like To Kill a Mocking Bird, both the book and film. Nonetheless, I wait for more information concerning the supposed discovery and publication of this book. I have worked in a government agency as advocate for elder abuse. Manipulation of an elder, especially the monetary gain from their successes in life, their finances, properties and estate is often overlooked as abuse and in many cases hard to prosecute. I hope that Harper Lee has not been exploited in this manner.

>13 lilithcat:, >15 Morphidae: of course it's boilerplate. It's from the website of a company who will be selling the book in the UK. On the other hand, it's quite emphatic declaration in the 1st person, which you wouldn't want to be caught fabricating.

9> As only 23 people have entered the book so far, of course LT doesn't think you will like it. That should change as more people who share books with you enter it.

Boilerplate can be run past the author with the question, "any comment, you want to reword any of this?" and the author can just wave it off and say "it's fine, it's fine."

I'm less suspicious of foul play given this is happening while she's still alive. You would think sharks would pounce after she's gone, not before. But that this manuscript was "found" so soon after Alice, that can't be coincidence. Maybe Alice was sitting on it, thinking it was best for Harper if this was just left to lie here and not mentioning it, Harper doesn't need the noise it'll make, etc.

All kinds of theories, but they're just theories.