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Lost Harper Lee novel - To Set A Watchman - to be published in July

I got one of the "BBC Breaking News" alerts on my phone about this about half an hour ago, complete with the BBC News sting. I mean, good news n all but really did I need the mobile equivalent of 'we interrupt this program to bring you this newsflash'
 
I may have pre-ordered it :hmm:

This is super exciting news. Seems like she wrote it before To Kill A Mockingbird and her editor liked the flashbacks of Scout so much they persuaded her to write a book about Scout's childhood and publish that instead.
 
Its going to be interesting to read it, if only to see if the rumors that Truman Capote really wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird" are true or false. Personally, I've never bought it, but the rumors persist.
 
I'm a suspicious old bat. I can't believe in all these years, she and her publisher just forgot about it.
I reckon someone else wrote it and they are sharing the money.
 
Apparently, Lee herself is in very poor health, blind and profoundly death and has recently got form for signing things she ought not have (like agreeing to a very unwise signing away of copywright renewal), suggesting Alzheimers/dementia. For decades, her sister - a lawyer - loyally and effectively protected Lee's interests. She died last year and now her affairs are being dealt with by another lawyer of whose motives many are suspicious. Suddenly, only a few months later this book turns up and Lee is reportedly delighted to have it published. A rat is smelled.

It's real, btw, the book. It's written about in one of Lee's biographies and its existance, plot and characters are a matter of record. But apparently Lee never wanted it to be published. Until now.
 
spanglechick said:
Apparently, Lee herself is in very poor health, blind and profoundly death and has recently got form for signing things she ought not have (like agreeing to a very unwise signing away of copywright renewal), suggesting Alzheimers/dementia. For decades, her sister - a lawyer - loyally and effectively protected Lee's interests. She died last year and now her affairs are being dealt with by another lawyer of whose motives many are suspicious. Suddenly, only a few months later this book turns up and Lee is reportedly delighted to have it published. A rat is smelled.

It's real, btw, the book. It's written about in one of Lee's biographies and its existance, plot and characters are a matter of record. But apparently Lee never wanted it to be published. Until now.
Click to expand...
That's interesting. I like it better than my suspicions :)
 
Shirl said:
I'm a suspicious old bat. I can't believe in all these years, she and her publisher just forgot about it.
I reckon someone else wrote it and they are sharing the money.
Click to expand...

I figured it was heirs looking to cash in.

Sometimes stuff does knock around in a drawer for a while before being published. Faith in the a Seed by Henry David Thoreau existed in that limbo for most of a century. And, recently an adult autobiography by Laura Ingels Wilder was printed by the South Dakota Historical Society. Most of the time those things are better left in a drawer. They weren't published at the time for a reason.
 
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spanglechick said:
Apparently, Lee herself is in very poor health, blind and profoundly death and has recently got form for signing things she ought not have (like agreeing to a very unwise signing away of copywright renewal), suggesting Alzheimers/dementia. For decades, her sister - a lawyer - loyally and effectively protected Lee's interests. She died last year and now her affairs are being dealt with by another lawyer of whose motives many are suspicious. Suddenly, only a few months later this book turns up and Lee is reportedly delighted to have it published. A rat is smelled.

It's real, btw, the book. It's written about in one of Lee's biographies and its existance, plot and characters are a matter of record. But apparently Lee never wanted it to be published. Until now.
Click to expand...

Oh, that would be a huge shame if she didn't want it published. I didn't realise. [emoji20]
 
Cribynkle said:
It's difficult to get your head round the fact that two such important authors were childhood friends
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If you look at most creative-types they exist in groups and seem to play off each other. It's lone geniuses that are rare.

What I find odd is that two such different people were friends.
 
Yuwipi Woman said:
Its going to be interesting to read it, if only to see if the rumors that Truman Capote really wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird" are true or false. Personally, I've never bought it, but the rumors persist.
Click to expand...

I'd heard rumours it was more the other way round -- HL helping TC out with his books.
 
Sue said:
I'd heard rumours it was more the other way round -- HL helping TC out with his books.
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She did a lot of the research for In Cold Blood.

The rumor for To Kill a Mockingbird goes beyond research. Various sources have claimed he wrote it, lock, stock, and barrel. I don't believe it. Most of those date back to a time where women often had to publish under men's names to get any respect.
 
sparklefish said:
Oh, that would be a huge shame if she didn't want it published. I didn't realise. [emoji20]
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I think - well, if it's true it's cynical... but if it's true, she's probably past knowing about it. I will doubtlessly read it myself, and i'll not fret too much.

Regarding the Capote thing - firstly it's got patriarchy written all over it: great book? Are we sure it wasn't a man who wrote it?

Secondly, it would be very odd if Capote saved his best fiction writing for publication under another's name. I've not read all of his work, but I've read a fair bit and he's doesn't really demonstrate the sustained skill that we see in TKAM. Which is fine - because in his finest moments he's an utter joy.
 
spanglechick said:
Apparently, Lee herself is in very poor health, blind and profoundly death and has recently got form for signing things she ought not have (like agreeing to a very unwise signing away of copywright renewal), suggesting Alzheimers/dementia. For decades, her sister - a lawyer - loyally and effectively protected Lee's interests. She died last year and now her affairs are being dealt with by another lawyer of whose motives many are suspicious. Suddenly, only a few months later this book turns up and Lee is reportedly delighted to have it published. A rat is smelled.

It's real, btw, the book. It's written about in one of Lee's biographies and its existance, plot and characters are a matter of record. But apparently Lee never wanted it to be published. Until now.
Click to expand...
I remember what happened when Salvador Dali was old: his wife Gala had died and he had completely lost it: they say he was virtually kept prisoner by a lawyer and a doctor...

I don't think she should publish it but leave it to be published after she has died. She must be incredibly rich (at least tens of millions if her contract was fair) so she does not need the money...

I wish her well though. I loved the book and I love the film.:thumbs:
 
spanglechick said:
I think - well, if it's true it's cynical... but if it's true, she's probably past knowing about it. I will doubtlessly read it myself, and i'll not fret too much.

Regarding the Capote thing - firstly it's got patriarchy written all over it: great book? Are we sure it wasn't a man who wrote it?

Secondly, it would be very odd if Capote saved his best fiction writing for publication under another's name. I've not read all of his work, but I've read a fair bit and he's doesn't really demonstrate the sustained skill that we see in TKAM. Which is fine - because in his finest moments he's an utter joy.
Click to expand...

I guess I would feel better if I knew it was being published because she'd truly had a change of heart but yeah, I'll still read it. I felt quite emotional when I read the news about the book. Not just that a book was coming out but that it was Scout again. [emoji5]️
I'm struggling to read at the moment but I might put the film on as I can't sleep.
I'd never heard the rumour that Capote wrote TKAM but like others had heard suggestions that she wrote for him. I've only read Breakfast at Tiffanys and In cold blood which are vastly different books but I just don't see Capote in TKAM at all.
 
sparklefish said:
Oh, that would be a huge shame if she didn't want it published.
Click to expand...

Yes and no. There's a question of ethics and a question of literary value, and it's difficult to say for certain that one should always trump the other. We'd have next to no Kafka if Max Brod hadn't ignored the author's instructions to have everything he wrote destroyed his death.
 
I might be in a minority of one here, but I thought "To kill..." was a pile of liberal horseshit.
 
articul8 said:
all hail the wise white man Atticus - may the blacks be truly thankful
Click to expand...

I take your point, but I think in a story that's very closely about a Southern white child's awakening to harsh realities in her community and her own relative privilege, rather than directly about the black experience of that, the realisation that her dad isn't as big an asshole as other whites and is hated by some for it is an effective device. And presumably more true to the reality of the situation than if Tom had been saved by an empowered black lawyer.
 
harper lees biographer on radio 4 kind of said it was pretty much going to be shit as it hadn't been edited like to kill a mockingbird... and that the reason it has come out now is that her sister, who used to deal with harper lees business affairs and protect her from duff deals etc, has recently died.
 
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