Harper Lee's 'Go Set a Watchman' Being Published Against Her Will?
Just a few weeks after "To Kill a Mockingbird" author Harper Lee announced that she is publishing her second novel, "Go Set a Watchman," controversy still hounds the circumstances behind the discovery of the manuscript and her decision to publish.
According to a report in The Guardian, her announcement came as a surprise to most people in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, where friends and neighbors know she had repeatedly said that she did not want to publish anything else after her first novel and said that "she may not be able to stop others from doing so."
The controversy stems around the circumstances of the manuscript's discovery and Lee's supposed approval for it to be published. It was supposedly discovered by Lee's lawyer, Tonja Carter, in a vault and attached to the original copy of "To Kill a Mockingbird," according to another report in Sky News.
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Between its discovery and the announcement to publish, Carter said that Lee was aware of what was happening and agreed that HarperCollins will publish the book. It was said that Carter negotiated with the publisher in Lee's behalf. Among Lee's friends and neighbors in her hometown, there was much skepticism about whether the author was indeed in control of what was happening.
As cited in an in-depth report also on The Guardian, it is said that Lee had lost her foremost defender, her sister Alice Lee, when she died last year. Since then, Carter became her lawyer. Carter was seen by some community members as someone who was responsible for "prying Lee away from the community."
Community member Sam Therrell said that Carter wrote him to stop visiting the sisters and bringing them soup, something that he believes the sisters did not know about.
Lee lives in an assisted living facility in Monroeville, and there are conflicting reports of her current state. Some friends remember her as someone who suffered from a stroke, did not remember things very well, "essentially blind and profoundly deaf." However, a resident assistant who was taking care of Lee was interviewed by The New York Times and she said that the author was "sharp as a tack."
Despite the controversy, however, other community members of Monroeville are anticipating the novel's publication.
"We'll do something to honor her, that's what we do here," the director of Monroe County Heritage Museum said. "We are proud of her accomplishments and we just want to celebrate that for her."
They have already pre-ordered 50 copies of "Go Set a Watchman," which was said to be the same number of copies of "To Kill a Mockingbird" that the town's only bookshop ordered when it came out.
To date, "Go Set a Watchman" remains among the top five bestselling books on Amazon. A few days after the announcement, it was no. 1 on the list. HarperCollins plans an initial run of 2 million copies.
