New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

Amazing: Publisher Harper announced Tuesday that "Go Set a Watchman," a novel the Pulitzer Prize-winning author completed in the 1950s and put aside, will be released July 14. Rediscovered last fall, "Go Set a Watchman" is essentially a sequel to "To Kill a Mockingbird," although it was finished earlier. The 304-page book will be Lee's second, and the first new work in more than 50 years.

Here's an ABC News article/video: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/...-july-28687808.

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

"To Kill a Mockingbird 2: Mockingbird's Revenge"

I don't fucking know.

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

*ENOUGH* with the sequels already, Hollywood! How about some original ideas? :)

Considering that I only read To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time in 2013*, I probably won't get around to this book until 2051.

*That was a whirlwind week of reading the book, seeing the movie for the first time, and catching a performance of the stage play. (The woman who played Scout in the film did a Q&A after the latter.)

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

2 Kill 2 Mockingbirds

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

Looking forward to this, ever since I read the first book have always wondered what happens to Scout as she gets older.

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

If you haven't read the article, "Watchman" was written first, and "Mockingbird" was pulled from flashback scenes in that book. So we've been reading the prequel all along, and this is supposedly the original.

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

Considering Mockingbird is my favorite book of all time, I will read this. I don't really have any expectations that it will be on the same level as Mockingbird, or it would have been published long ago.

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

Isn't Harper Lee in poor health? Does she really want this book released? Or are other people taking advantage of her?

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

^ I just read this Jezebel article called "Be Suspicious of the New Harper Lee Novel": http://jezebel.com/be-suspicious-of-...vel-1683488258

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

It's sad if that speculation is true.

I'm a Game of Thrones viewer not reader (and this is a fake Martin account), but it still gave me a chuckle:

http://i.imgur.com/4sdqtql.png

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

Considering that it's arguably the great American novel written in the past century I don't see how you couldn't be excited for this.

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

New Harper Lee, new J.D Salinger who'd have ever thunk it.

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

So will it turn out that she originally intended the Mockingbird Saga to be in 9 parts, and incorporate an all digital Boo Radley in the "prequel"?

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

Well, it's happened before.

On the other hand, depending on how badly she was taken advantage of, she may actually need the money.

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

Comes out Tuesday. I totally forgot this is finally coming out.




Harper Lee Receives Copy of ‘Go Set a Watchman’ as Release Nears Tuesday.

Nearly 60 years after Harper Lee wrote “Go Set a Watchman,” the novel she hoped would be her literary debut, the 89-year-old author was handed a finished copy of the book at a private lunch in Monroeville, Ala., last week.

Despite the manuscript’s long and uncertain journey to publication, Ms. Lee seemed breezily self-assured about the book’s highly anticipated release next week, people who attended said.

After her publishers gave her the first copies off the presses of the American and British versions of “Watchman,” Ms. Lee was asked if she ever expected the novel to be published.

“Of course I did, don’t be silly,” she said, according to Lee Sentell, the director of the Alabama Tourism Department, who attended the lunch on June 30.

Ms. Lee sat next to Joy Brown, a longtime friend who lent her money when she was living in New York in the 1950s so she could focus on writing. Ms. Lee has poor eyesight and hearing and is largely confined to a nearby nursing home. But on this day she was animated and in good spirits, Mr. Sentell said. Wearing a black blouse and a black-and-white checked jacket, Ms. Lee signed copies of the book during lunch and chatted with people, he said.

The lunch was held at the Prop and Gavel, a restaurant in Monroeville’s town square that is owned by Ms. Lee’s lawyer, Tonja B. Carter, and her husband, Pat Carter, but is currently closed for business. A retinue of publishing industry executives flew in for the occasion, including Ms. Lee’s literary agent, Andrew Nurnberg; Michael Morrison, the president and publisher of HarperCollins; Jonathan Burnham, the publisher of Harper, a HarperCollins imprint; and Susan Sandon, managing director of a division of Penguin Random House UK, which is releasing the book in Britain.

“It was lovely to see Nelle’s delight in the book itself,” Ms. Sandon said in a statement, using the name Ms. Lee goes by among family and friends.

The rest of Monroeville will honor the book’s arrival on Tuesday with an elaborate celebration involving walking tours with stops at landmarks that appear in both “Mockingbird” and “Watchman” and a marathon reading of “Watchman” in the courtroom, now a museum, which inspired the setting for the dramatic courtroom scenes in “Mockingbird.” But for Ms. Lee, who is intensely private and has not granted a formal interview in decades, the intimate lunch was likely to be as large a celebration as she would endure.

“I’ve met with Nelle a handful of times, the first time in 1994, and one thing that has always remained constant is she doesn’t like to be fussed over,” said Mr. Morrison, who noted that when they were waiting for Ms. Lee to arrive at the restaurant, “It felt like we were waiting for a bride to show up.”

After the lunch, Mr. Sentell said he was asked to take Ms. Lee back to the Meadows, the assisted living facility where she lives. “I’ve never driven so carefully in my life,” he said.

Less than a week before the book’s publication, “Watchman” and the circumstances surrounding its discovery remain shrouded in mystery. The details of the plot have been closely guarded, and little is known about the story, which unfolds 20 years after “Mockingbird” and features the familiar characters Scout and Atticus Finch. The excitement surrounding the publication has been clouded by lingering questions about how and when the manuscript was discovered.

In a taped interview that Mr. Nurnberg, Ms. Lee’s agent, gave to Mr. Sentell before the lunch, he described his shock when Ms. Carter told him last September that she had discovered another manuscript by Ms. Lee. He read it and flew to Alabama to meet with the author. “I told Nelle I found it such a strong novel and I hoped she wanted to publish it, and asked would she like to read it again. She said: ‘Oh no, I remember it very well, no problem. But if you think people will enjoy it, let’s publish it,’ ” Mr. Nurnberg said in the interview, which Mr. Sentell played for The New York Times.

Mr. Nurnberg’s recollection differs with the February news release announcing the publication, in which HarperCollins said that Ms. Lee had been reluctant to release the book until she was reassured by others who had read it.

In the interview, Mr. Nurnberg also described a near-miss moment when, in 2013, he said he held the manuscript of “Watchman” without realizing it during a meeting with Ms. Carter. He said that she had asked him if he would like to see the original “Mockingbird” manuscript. He looked at the first few pages in a large stack, but did not read far enough to discover “Watchman” bundled at the back.

He said that after they left the bank vault where the manuscript was kept, Ms. Carter mentioned that she had detected differences, like characters that were not in “Mockingbird,” and that she suspected Ms. Lee had cut a great deal from the original draft. “I had it in my hand and had no idea,” he said, adding that Ms. Carter did not realize it was an entirely different book, either.

Mr. Nurnberg’s account of the novel’s discovery adds another layer to the evolving story of how the lost book was recovered.

While Ms. Carter has described finding it accidentally as she was reviewing the “Mockingbird” manuscript last August, another narrative suggests that the “Watchman” manuscript, or a version of it, might have been discovered several years earlier. In 2011, a rare books expert from Sotheby’s auction house traveled to Monroeville at the request of Ms. Lee’s former literary agent, Samuel Pinkus, to evaluate the manuscript of “Mockingbird” for insurance and other purposes.

When he looked at it, he saw that the characters were older, and pointed out the differences to Mr. Pinkus and Ms. Carter, according to a person briefed on his account. In a statement, Ms. Carter said she had escorted the men to the bank but left to run an errand before the manuscript was evaluated.

The debate about the book is likely to continue well after its release, as fans and scholars dissect the novel and weigh it against “Mockingbird.”

In his remarks to Mr. Sentell, Mr. Nurnberg predicted that readers would embrace the new book. “You open the first page, and you know immediately this is Harper Lee,” he said.

Correction: July 8, 2015
An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the filming of courtroom scenes in the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The scenes were filmed on a set modeled after the courtroom in Monroeville, Ala., not at the courthouse itself.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/08/bo...ase-nears.html

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

In all honesty, it sounds pretty shady--I'm reasonably sure everyone handling this is completely full of it, and obviously that's not a leap seeing as none of their stories line up. Yet I still can't wait to read it.

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

The first chapter of Go Set a Watchman was released today: http://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-...-first-chapter

I enjoyed it but it is a bit clunky, and clearly the work of a first-time author, albeit an extremely talented first-time author. I will hold off on further comment except to say it's not really compatible with To Kill a Mockingbird based on a major event that is mentioned only in passing in this book.

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

Interesting review from the NYTimes:

Review: Harper Lee’s ‘Go Set a Watchman’ Gives Atticus Finch a Dark Side

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

I know it's my fault for clicking and reading the review but nytimes really should've posted a spoiler warning. Some other reviews i've read have been careful in not revealing plot and character details.

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

It really sounds like this should not be read as a completed work but strictly a window into the creation process of Mockingbird. Which I am totally fine with, and as a wannabe writer I will find it fascinating. But it's going to disappoint a lot of people, including the part of me that was hopeful this would somehow serve as both a sequel and scholarly work.

It sort of reminds me of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn Among the Indians, which was an unfinished sequel to Huck Finn as sort of promised by Huck at the end of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. When I finally tracked it down I was disappointed, and wasn't sad that it ended abruptly as Twain realized it wasn't working. But that work had little of the hallmarks of Twain's writing, while at least the first chapter of Watchman had many of Lee's touches.

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

Awesome, great headline.

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

http://mashable.com/2015/07/14/go-se...rd-harper-lee/

Re: New Harper Lee: GO SET A WATCHMAN
 

There's 162 people waiting for this book at my library. I'm not in a hurry, so I put a hold on it.