The manuscript was rediscovered last year, Lee, 88, said in a statement from her publisher, Harper.
“In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called ‘Go Set a Watchman,’ ” she 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.
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Jonathan Burnham, Harper’s senior vice president and publisher, called “Go Set a Watchman” “a remarkable literary event.”
“The existence of ‘Go Set a Watchman’ was unknown until recently, and its discovery is an extraordinary gift to the many readers and fans of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ ” he said in the statement. “Reading in many ways like a sequel to Harper Lee’s classic novel, it is a compelling and ultimately moving narrative about a father and a daughter’s relationship, and the life of a small Alabama town living through the racial tensions of the 1950s.”
