Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman

If you love To Kill a Mockingbird as much as I do you might be aware of the "newly discovered" Harper Lee Novel that the literary world is all abuzz about.  Apparently the original manuscript written by Lee was not exactly what the publisher Lippincott was willing to publish.  But they liked her writing, thought she was onto something  and worked with her to revise her original manuscript and To Kill a Mockingbird was written and published.  It remains on most middle school/high school curriculum to this day.  I have read it multiple times and each time I walk away with a new perspective.

It turned out to be a mega hit, one that has  provided Lee with approximately 3 million a year in royalties.  Now the original manuscript is getting edited and there are plans to publish this "new" old novel.  It would seem that Harper Lee is in no physical condition to approve the publication of this book and their is a lot of controversy on the legal implications of publishing it.  From a purely literary sense, I am thrilled at the prospect of reading the book however, what is going to happen to the rights to the book and does the publisher really have the right to publish it. What are Harper Collin's rights.  Who is looking out for her and her property.  I look forward to seeing how it all works out. The new novel Go Set a Watchman is due to be released in July 2015. I am willing to go out on a limb and say it will be extremely popular.

For those of you who are not from the DC area and do not read The Washington Post I am sharing this link so that you can read this extremely interesting article. To Shill a Mockingbird