Harper Lee’s ‘Go Set A Watchman’ to be released on July 14

Harper Lee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Young Harper Lee with that  deserved one smoke after writing literary classic ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ which was published in 1960

89-year-old Harper Lee, American novelist, widely known for her 1960  Pulitzer Prize winning novel  ”˜To Kill a Mockingbird, which deals with the racism she observed as a child in her hometown of  Monroeville, Alabama, has published her second book ”˜Go Set a Watchman’ with publisher Harper of Harper Collins. Lee had penned it even before the first novel which was made into a movie with Gregory Peck that has become a classic.  Peck won  an Oscar  for his portrayal of Atticus Finch,  the father of the novel’s narrator, Scout.

harper lee - to kill

 

 

 

 

Harper Lee - to kii 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lee now lives in an assisted-living facility, wheelchair-bound, partially blind and deaf, and suffering from memory loss but decided to publish ”˜Go Set a  Watchman’ this February which is due for release on July 14, 2015. The manuscript of ”˜Go Set a Watchman’ was lost for many years, until being rediscovered by her lawyer in late 2014.  

Go Set a Watchman  is a sequel to  To Kill a Mockingbird, though it was completed before the latter. The novel is likewise set in Maycomb, Alabama, when Scout returns to visit from New York 20 years later.

Lee said that her editor persuaded her to rework some of  Watchman””Š’”‹s sequences, in which Scout has flashbacks to her childhood, as a novel in their own right and that book became  To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee has stated, “I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told. ”¦ In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called  ”˜Go Set a Watchman’ ”¦ It features the character known as Scout as an adult woman, and I thought it a pretty decent effort.” Her publisher has said that it is unlikely she will do a publicity tour for the book.

Though Lee has been a recluse mentioning once when invited for a literary honour, “Well, it’s better to be silent than to be a fool”, she had replied once to Oprah Winfrey who said on her show, “Lee wrote about her love of books as a child and her dedication to the written word. “Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cellphones, iPods and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books.”

On November 5, 2007, Lee was presented  with the  Presidential Medal of Freedom  by George W Bush. This is the highest civilian award in the United States and recognizes individuals who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors”.

In 2010, President  Barack Obama  awarded Lee the  National Medal of Arts, the highest award given by the United States government for “outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support and availability of the arts”.

 

 

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