The courtroom in the Monroe County Courthouse in Monroeville, Ala., which served as inspiration for Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.””, Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story Share This Page Continue reading the main story
MONROEVILLE, Ala. — One morning late last summer, Tonja B. Carter was doing some legal work for her prized client, Harper Lee, when she found herself thumbing through an old manuscript of what she assumed was “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The characters were familiar, as they would be to millions of readers — the crusading lawyer, Atticus Finch, and his feisty daughter, Scout. But the passages were different. Atticus was much older. Scout was grown up. The story unfolded in Alabama during the racial turmoil of the 1950s, not the Depression of the 1930s.
Confused, Ms. Carter scanned the text, trying to figure out what she was holding. It was a novel titled “Go Set a Watchman.” It may be one of the most monumental discoveries in contemporary American literature.
“I was so stunned. At the time I didn’t know if it was finished,” Ms. Carter recalled in an interview on Saturday, her first extensive comments about the discovery. She went to see Ms. Lee and asked her if the novel was complete. “She said, ‘Complete? I guess so. It was the parent of “Mockingbird.” ’ ”
The recovered manuscript has ignited fierce debate — much of it speculative — about why Ms. Lee waited so long to publish again, whether the book will stand up to her beloved first novel, and whether the author, who has long shied away from public attention, might have been pressured or manipulated into publishing it.
And as word of the new book spread in her hometown, the fog that long shrouded the enigmatic, publicity-shy author — known to most as Nelle — has only deepened.
Some close friends were shocked to hear of a second novel from Ms. Lee, who was often emphatic that she would never publish another book. But others in her inner circle long knew of its existence. At least one family member remembered reading portions of the manuscript for “Go Set a Watchman” in the mid-1950s. “It definitely was her writing, and it was never lost,” Hank Conner, Ms. Lee’s oldest nephew, said in an interview. “It obviously has been in the possession of the family.”
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The new novel will no doubt be another commercial juggernaut. Shortly after the title was announced, a surge in preorders pushed it to No. 1 on Amazon. HarperCollins is planning a first printing of two million copies.
“Go Set a Watchman” would have been Ms. Lee’s literary debut, if her editor hadn’t rejected it. She finished the novel, which takes place 20 years after “To Kill a Mockingbird,” in the mid-1950s. But her editor, Tay Hohoff, told her to write a new version from Scout’s perspective as a young girl.
She cast aside the original book. She said in a statement last week that she thought it was lost.
When Ms. Carter revealed her discovery to Ms. Lee in August, the author was shocked, Ms. Carter recalled. Ms. Lee immediately asked her friend to repeat herself. Ms. Carter reiterated that she had found a novel, calling the book “Go Set the Watchman.” She was swiftly corrected: “It’s ‘Go Set a Watchman,’ ” Ms. Lee said.
Jennifer Crossley Howard contributed reporting from Monroeville, Ala., and Ginia Bellafante from New York. Elisa Cho and Alain Delaquérière contributed research.
