“To Kill a Mockingbird” Author to Release Sequel 50 Years Later
That’s right, after over 50 years the sequel to the book about racism and life in the south that we all had to read Freshman year (but secretly loved) will be released in July.
The successor, entitled Go Set a Watchman, was written in the 1950s before To Kill a Mockingbird was even scrawled on scratch paper. Watchman is set years after Scout Finch was just a youngster growing up in fictional Maycomb, Alabama, when Miss Finch returns back to her hometown as a woman to revisit her childhood years. Lee’s publisher was intrigued by the flashbacks to Scout’s earlier years, and asked her to write a story about that. The product was the Pulitzer Prize Winning To Kill a Mockingbird.
“I was a first time writer, so I did as I was told. I hadn’t realized it (the original book) had survived, so 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. I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years,” said Lee, as reported by ABC News.
Naturally, this news was greeted by ecstatic fans, eager for more from an author whose lone book has survived not only the mid-19th century Civil Rights movement, but our nation’s first black president — a far cry from the assassination of a pro-racial equality white president a mere three years after Mockingbird was published.
“I’m extremely excited, as I’m sure many others are, about a sequel. With a classic such as TKAM [“To Kill A Mockingbird”] you always hope that the end of the book isn’t the end of the story and this will definitely hold true for the sequel,” said Junior Kitty Schwartz.
Literary lovers will be anxiously waiting the summer of 2015, to say the least. Who knows; maybe English classes will have to read two Harper Lee books next year.
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