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Rare Book Monthly

Articles - October - 2015 Issue

To Kill A Legacy – No Third Novel Yet for Harper Lee

No comparables have been found.

No comparables have been found.

There will not be a third Harper Lee novel published, at least not yet. So was the news from an expert called in to examine some old typescripts found with Ms. Lee's second novel, Go Set A Watchman, in a safe deposit box. It is hard to know whether to feel sad or relief about this turn of events. The circumstances behind the "discovery" and publishing of Watchman, 55 years after the release of Lee's first novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, arouses too much unease already.

 

This doesn't mean there won't be another. Documents in the paperwork of Ms. Lee's once agents, now held by Columbia University, refer to an early novel called The Long Goodbye, and she worked for a long time on a nonfiction piece, tentatively called The Reverend, about a preacher suspected of killing four relatives and collecting the insurance. Finally, when a fifth relative, a step-daughter, was found dead, her uncle shot and killed the "Reverend."

 

The safe deposit box which contained the long buried typescript for Go Set A Watchman contained two other documents. One was obviously an early typescript for To Kill A Mockingbird. The other was a jumble of pages not clear as to what they were. Lee's attorney, Tonja Carter, called in an expert, James S. Jaffe, to evaluate the remaining item and tell us what it is. He has now revealed the answer. It is a much earlier draft of To Kill A Mockingbird. Much was changed, starting with the opening. Rather than the first sentence being about Jem's broken elbow, it began, "Where did it begin for us? It began with Andrew Jackson." This early try was so different it's no wonder it took an expert to decipher what it was. It may never be published, but it will fascinate scholars seeking to unravel the mysteries of Harper Lee and her one great book.

 

Still, none of this makes us feel comfortable, and to understand, we need to go back to where it began for us. Harper Lee burst onto the scene with Mockingbird in 1960. The book was an immediate success, both with the public and the critics (how often does that happen?). Soon after, it became an even more successful movie, with Gregory Peck playing the part of Atticus Finch. The movie is still considered a classic. The book has never been out of print.

 

Harper Lee, on the other hand, disappeared from view. Not entirely, not like Howard Hughes. She could be seen around her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. She didn't have bodyguards to protect her from the public. She was not unfriendly. Ms. Lee just didn't give interviews, didn't talk about her writing. At what point she determined not to write any more, or why, is unclear. She withdrew from public life and lived like any other woman from small-town Alabama. There is nothing all that astonishing about her choice, but so many people who vicariously live the lives of celebrities have a hard time understanding how someone who could be a star would choose to live a normal life. Ms. Lee understood.

 

However, her choice to live a private life doesn't answer the question why she chose to never write another novel. Did she not have another story in her? In a rare interview, she once indicated she had said all she had to say. Some speculated that she had help from her childhood friend, Truman Capote, and could not write another without him (though no evidence of assistance on his part has ever been produced). This last theory reared its head up again when To Set A Watchman was published. I have not read it, but the reviews were miserable. It evidently doesn't come close to matching Mockingbird, and many wish it had never been published. So far, it has not enhanced Ms. Lee's legacy. Then again, it was written before, not after Mockingbird, even if it is a sequel, so Ms. Lee would not have had a chance to fine-tune her craft at that time.

 

Having produced no more novels for 55 years, and steadfastly avoiding publicity, the natural question is why now? Ms. Lee is now 89 years old and living in a nursing home, her hearing and eyesight said not to be good. And yet, her attorney, Ms. Carter, said Lee was excited about the publication of her second novel. After 55 years of burying it, now she is? It seems so unlike her. For years, Harper Lee's older sister, Alice, protected her from prying eyes. Watchman would have brought in a bundle of money years ago, as it did this summer, but Alice and Harper kept it buried. Alice protected her sister as long as she could, but last November, at the age of 103, she died. Within a few months, this very old novel was "discovered," publisher HarperCollins announced it would be published this summer, and Attorney Carter declared that Harper Lee had done a 180-degree about face in suddenly being so pleased about the release of this long buried novel and the attendant publicity.

 

Naturally, it led many to wonder if Harper Lee is being taken advantage of. HarperCollins' representatives said no, but also admitted they hadn't met with Ms. Lee themselves. The state sent someone to visit her in the nursing home, but did not take any further action. In 2013, she initiated a lawsuit over her signing away rights to Mockingbird in 2007, saying she was living in an assisted living center after suffering a stroke. She filed a lawsuit against a local museum last year for using her name and book title. It seems odd that a lady in her late 80's would be so litigious. An interviewer in 2011 said that Ms. Lee's memory was not so sharp, and friends have expressed similar concerns. A lot of money will be made from Watchman, but it is unclear if this will be of much benefit to the elderly and ailing author.

 

This latest episode leads me to another question. Why did they need an expert to evaluate what this writing was? Couldn't they have just asked Harper Lee? One would think that having written so few novels, that she would be able to save them the trouble of hiring an expert and just tell everyone what it was. At least that would seem logical if her memory is fully intact.

 

We wish good friends Truman Capote or Gregory Peck were still here to go talk with Ms. Lee and tell us whether she truly understands what is happening and is approving, even ecstatic, about it. After guarding her reputation so long, did she really want to put out a follow-up that has been regarded universally as far inferior? Maybe she does want to make one last splash, but maybe not. Certainly, Watchman and anything else she wrote should be preserved. It should be available for scholars studying her work, but should it should it have been published as a second novel, rather than a rough draft that eventually morphed into Mockingbird? Someone with no personal interest of their own should ask Ms. Lee.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Freeman’s | HindmanWestern Manuscripts and MiniaturesJuly 8, 2025 Freeman’s | HindmanWestern Manuscripts and MiniaturesJuly 8, 2025
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    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Forum AuctionsFine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper  17th July 2025 Forum AuctionsFine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper  17th July 2025
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    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
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    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
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    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
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    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
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    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
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    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800

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