Thinking back to high school English class, most people will recall reading Harper Lee’s landmark novel, “To Kill A Mockingbird.” It’s the book that teaches most 15- and 16-year-olds about the justice system, racism and fairness.
But fairness is a point that is being disputed in the midst of what would otherwise be good news: publishing company HarperCollins has announced the release of another book by Lee, “Go Set A Watchman,” two-and-a-half months after the death of Lee’s sister and lawyer Alice.
“Go Set A Watchman” is basically a sequel to “To Kill A Mockingbird,” taking place 20 years later when Scout Finch, the “Mockingbird” protagonist, comes back to the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama to see her father Atticus, according to a statement released by the publishing company on behalf of Lee. Lee wrote the novel in the 1950s, before she wrote “To Kill a Mockingbird.” It was never supposed to see the light of day, but is now apparently being pushed for a summer 2015 release.
“This is 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,'” said HarperCollins Senior Vice President and Publisher Jonathan Burnham in a Tuesday statement.
Harper Lee is an extremely private person — she once told Oprah over a non-televised interview that she hates being compared to Scout, the young, tenacious main character in “To Kill A Mockingbird,” instead choosing to compare herself to the book’s town recluse, Boo Radley.
And coincidentally, Lee often called her sister Alice “Atticus in a skirt,” not just due to her profession, but because Alice was the person who allowed Harper Lee’s other work to go unpublicized. Alice protected her sister from media attention and from the publishing world that, despite having written one of the greatest American novels of all time, she wanted nothing to do with. So it’s understandable as to why people would be wary of HarperCollins’ decision to publish “Go Set A Watchman” now.
Lee has not lived in Monroeville, Alabama, the town that Maycomb is based off of, for a few years now. She resides in a nursing home nearby and is, by many accounts, senile. She has been growing increasingly forgetful and has been blind and deaf for years now due to a stroke she suffered in 2007, according to Gawker. After Lee’s sister retired as her attorney at the age of 100, Tonja Carter took over the job, and Carter has stated before that Lee often doesn’t truly understand the content of the contracts she signs.
“Lee has a history of signing whatever’s in front of her, apparently sometimes with Carter’s advice,” Gawker reported on July 18, 2014. For example, in 2007, Lee’s agent Samuel Pinkus had her sign a contract that handed the copyright to her books to him. Her lawyers then filed a complaint that stated that Lee did not mean to sign the document. She had to sue to gain her rights back, which she eventually did get, but it’s a sad example of an elderly woman blindly placing her trust in people who are supposed to have her best interests at heart.
Lee is a purposefully private person, and was never a fan of the media storm that followed the release of her Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel in 1960. She has not done a published interview since 1964 and has turned down most press requests made of her. Even now, people can only speak to her through third parties — and these third parties are not all necessarily trustworthy. Burnham rather mysteriously told The New York Times that he is “completely confident” that Ms. Lee understands what she has signed up for with “Go Set A Watchman,” and that speaking to her “wasn’t necessary.”
With all of this new information in mind, one has to wonder: who will actually be reaping the benefits of a book Harper Lee never wanted to publish? Will it be Lee herself, or the lawyers and publicists who are likely taking advantage of a senile woman and her tendency to blindly trust people?
The book was written over fifty years ago. Lee she did not publish it back then, so she likely doesn’t want it published now. Her lawyer has quite literally stated that she’s known to sign contracts without understanding what she’s handing over, which is troubling from both a personal and legal standpoint. Part of a lawyer’s job is to make sure that the person signing the contract is mentally capable enough to comprehend it, which clearly, Lee is not. It’s not right to wait until our literary icons are 88 years old and then take advantage of them when they don’t realize it.
Yes, it is incredibly exciting to hear that a sequel to one of the most beloved books in American history is possibly being published. And yes, if “Watchman” actually makes it to print, it will likely sell and make millions. But until and unless Harper Lee herself comes out — on her own terms and not through her publishing company — to endorse the release of “Go Set A Watchman,” it will be hard to feel okay reading it.
