Harper Lee must sit back and observe trends for a really long time.
The author of To Kill a Mockingbird—the book you either read, loved, and named your dog "Atticus" after, or one of the many books you read Cliff Notes for, and just remember that there's some stuff put into a tree—must've noticed that sequels and reboots are all the rage. Fifty-five years after publishing her first novel, the reclusive author announced that there's a "sequel." Before you call it a middle school cash grab, it should be noted that the book was actually written in the '50s and only recently discovered. But it does have a comic book-y title. Really, Lee was just ahead of her time.
The "new" book, titled Go Set a Watchmen, is about the adult life of Scout Finch who, in Mockingbird, was a child narrator that observed the town's reaction against her father, Atticus, who defended a black man accused of rape in the South. Lee said in a statement that her editor at the time preferred the flashbacks to Scout's youth in the Watchmen manuscript, and convinced her to put that work on hold, and start with the youthful portion. And the world got, To Kill a Mockingbird.
"I hadn't realized [Watchmen] had survived," Lee said in the statement, "so [I] 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."
In July, two-million copies will be published. And in the literary world, that's a blockbuster. Somewhere, a wannabe screenwriter is shredding their spec sequel they'd written to her work. And we're sure Hollywood is already bidding.
[via Associated Press]
