To Kill A Mockingbird

Alabama Investigating Possible Elder Abuse In Connection With Harper Lee’s New Novel

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This article by Sarah Kaplan originally appeared on The Washington Post on 3/12/15.

The news last month that Harper Lee would be publishing a second book was met with a brief blip of exultation followed by skepticism from fans of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Why would the 88-year-old author, a woman so publicity-averse she once compared herself to the reclusive Boo Radley from her novel, have agreed to the publication of a “Mockingbird” predecessor she tabled more than 50 years ago?

Many concluded that Lee, who resides in an assisted-living facility and is said to be in declining health, could not have knowingly consented to a new novel, entitled “Go Set a Watchman.”

Now, the New York Times reported Wednesday night, at least one complaint about potential elder abuse has been filed, and Alabama state officials are investigating the claims.

The Times report said investigators for the state’s Human Resources Department and the Alabama Securities Commission, tasked with preventing financial fraud against the elderly, interviewed Lee last month. They also spoke to employees of the facility where she lives, as well as to several friends.

 

Read the full article on The Washington Post.

 

After Harper Lee Novel Surfaces, Plots Arise

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This article by Alexandra Alter and Serge F. Kovaleski originally appeared on The New York Times on 2/8/15.

MONROEVILLE, Ala. — One morning late last summer, Tonja B. Carter was doing some legal work for her prized client, Harper Lee, when she found herself thumbing through an old manuscript of what she assumed was “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The characters were familiar, as they would be to millions of readers — the crusading lawyer, Atticus Finch, and his feisty daughter, Scout. But the passages were different. Atticus was much older. Scout was grown up. The story unfolded in Alabama during the racial turmoil of the 1950s, not the Depression of the 1930s.

Confused, Ms. Carter scanned the text, trying to figure out what she was holding. It was a novel titled “Go Set a Watchman.” It may be one of the most monumental discoveries in contemporary American literature.

“I was so stunned. At the time, I didn’t know if it was finished,” Ms. Carter recalled in an interview on Saturday, her first extensive comments about the discovery. She went to see Ms. Lee and asked her if the novel was complete. “She said: ‘Complete? I guess so. It was the parent of “Mockingbird.” ’ ”

The recovered manuscript has ignited fierce debate — much of it speculative — about why Ms. Lee waited so long to publish again, whether the book will stand up to her beloved first novel, and whether the author, who has long shied away from public attention, might have been pressured or manipulated into publishing it.

And as word of the new book spread in her hometown, the fog that long shrouded the enigmatic, publicity-shy author — known to most as Nelle — has only deepened.

 

Read the full article on The New York Times.