News

Actions

Second Harper Lee Novel to Be Published in July

To Kill a Mockingbird
Posted
and last updated

NEW YORK (AP) - Fifty-five years after the release of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "To Kill a Mockingbird," a second novel from author Harper Lee is going to be published. It's called "Go Set a Watchman."

She actually wrote it before "To Kill a Mockingbird" -- but it is essentially a sequel to that acclaimed novel, which has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.

"Go Set a Watchman" takes place in the mid-1950s, some 20 years after "To Kill a Mockingbird" -- at around the same time Lee was writing it. It features the character Scout as an adult woman.

In a statement issued by the publisher, Lee says when she completed "Go Set a Watchman," her editor was "taken by the flashbacks to Scout's childhood," and encouraged her to write a novel from the point of view of the young Scout. That novel became "To Kill a Mockingbird," and Lee put the other one aside.

She says she hadn't realized it still existed, and was "surprised and delighted" when a friend discovered it.

The publisher says it was found "affixed to an original typescript" of "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Actor Robert Duvall -- who played Boo Radley in the movie that was made from that book -- says in a statement that the film was a "pivotal point" for him, and that he's "looking forward" to the new book.

(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)