Pulitzer Prize-winning author Harper Lee returns from a half a century hiatus with a new book titled ‘Go Set A Watchman’
As we reflect on Black History this February, Harper Lee, the author of the classic book ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ comes out of hiding with a new project. Harper Lee’s book that was translated into a movie inspired readers and viewers alike 50 years ago to address the issue of racism. Publisher Harper announced Tuesday that the sequel ‘Go Set A Watchman’, a novel that was finished, yet never published in the 1950’s, will be released July 14, 2015. The novel will be published in the United Kingdom by William Heinemann, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
‘Go Set A Watchman’ will continue the story of Atticus Finch, an attorney that defends a Black man accused in a rape case involving a white woman. Harper Lee‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiographical novel, based on her own childhood, was scripted and released as a film in 1962. The setting took place in a small Alabama town in the early 1930s. The storyline focuses on lawyer Atticus Finch, played by actor Gregory Peck in the movie. Finch puts his career on the line when he agrees to represent Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), a black man accused of raping a white woman. The trial and the events surrounding it are seen through the eyes of Finch’s six-year-old daughter Scout (Mary Badham). In the newly released book, Scout will return to the town where the trial originally took place.
In a statement regarding the new publication Lee states:
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.
-Infinite Wiz(@InfiniteWiz)
