Yesterday HarperCollins made a monumental announcement: To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee is publishing a sequel to her iconic novel.
Lee, who’s 88 years old, was quoted in the publisher’s press release and spoke highly of the decision to publish Go Set a Watchmen, which she didn’t know still existed until it was recently discovered.
“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,” she said. “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.”
Based on these remarks, it sounds like Harper is all for the publication. The problem? Many in the literature community are concerned that Harper did not make this decision or these comments herself.
Lee has been in poor health since suffering a stroke in 2007. Over the past few years she’s been “put into an assisted living facility, where reports say she is increasingly blind and deaf,” according to Jezebel. To make matters worse, Harper “has a history of signing whatever’s put in front of her, apparently sometimes with [her lawyer’s] advice,” Gawker reported last year.
The author’s sister Alice had been handling her affairs as her attorney with Harper’s best intentions in mind — that is, until retiring a few years ago and dying in November of last year.
One of many covers over the years for Harper’s To Kill a Mockingbird
Many find the timing of this new book to be suspicious. Alice, the woman who best took care of Harper, dies, and suddenly the author decides that a recently discovered book she’s had sitting around for half a century should be published?
As noted in the quote from Harper above, the author’s lawyer recently discovered the book attached to a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird in a vault. In an interview with Harper’s editor Hugh Van Dusen, who only found out about Go Set a Watchmen one day before the public did, we learn that the publisher has no communication with the author herself — it is all done through Tonja.
“I don’t think [HarperCollins speaks to Harper], only because she’s very deaf and going blind,” he told Vulture in an interview on Tuesday. “So it’s difficult to give her a phone call, you know? I think we do all our dealing through her lawyer, Tonja. It’s easier for the lawyer to go see her in the nursing home and say HarperCollins would like to do this and do that and get her permission. That’s the only reason nobody’s in touch with her. I’m told it’s very difficult to talk to her.”
When asked if Harper would have had any resistance in publishing the book, he replied, “You mean was she unwilling to have it published? [Vulture’s emphasis] No, no, no, no. We would never do that. She’s too valuable an author to fool around with that way. It would never happen. We wouldn’t dare do that.”
Harper’s publishers aren’t the only people who believe she was able to make this choice herself. A historian in Monroeville, Alabama named Wayne Flynt — who says he regularly visits Harper — told a local newspaper he saw Harper earlier this week and found her “lucid.” He added that he was unaware of the sequel prior to the announcement and doesn’t believe “any of her closest friends” knew. “And I know most of them,” he added. This, despite Harper saying in the press release that she shared the manuscript with a “handful of people I trust.”
There are many questions buzzing around the literature community this week. How truthful are Tonja and HarperCollins being? With Alice out of the picture, did someone ask Tonja to clear the way for this new book to be published? Was this book’s publication blocked by Alice up until her death?
And most importantly, is Harper truly interested in seeing the book hit the market, despite never mentioning it before or suggesting she wanted to publish a second book?
With Harper hidden safely away in a nursing home, we may never know the answers to these important questions.
Go Set a Watchmen is currently available for pre-order on Amazon with publication set for July. It’s currently the top-selling book on the online retailer’s website.