海角大神

Forget the "Mockingjay." 听The announcement that Harper Lee is releasing the sequel to her masterwork,听"To Kill a Mockingbird,"听has the publishing world catching fire with excitement 鈥� and a whiff of controversy.听

"In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called 'Go Set a Watchman,'" Ms. Lee said in a statement issued by her publisher.听"It features the character known as Scout as an adult woman, and I thought it a pretty decent effort. My editor, who was taken by the flashbacks to Scout's childhood, persuaded me to write a novel (what became 'To Kill a Mockingbird') from the point of view of the young Scout.

Along with real enthusiasm and excitement from the millions of admirers of Lee's first novel, there's some skepticism.听

A completed novel? Just three months after her sister, Alice, who was the legal eagle in the family, passes on, a completed novel suddenly surfaces?

The statement released by Harper, her publisher, quoted Lee as saying:

For fans who have followed the legal battles of recent years, there's skepticism that Lee is really behind this novel's release, which is due to be published on July 14, 2015. A fully-hatched novel is "discovered" and not a collection of notes?

Doubts about the credibility of Harper Lee's endorsement of the release of this book 鈥� after long insisting she would never publish another novel 鈥� are likely shaped by last year's controversy over a biography,听titled "Mockingbird Next Door: Life With Harper Lee"听 published in听July 2014.听

The book's author, Marja Mills, first got to know Lee and her older sister Alice in 2001 as a journalist for听The Chicago Tribune. In 2004, with the sisters' blessing (according to the author and her publisher), Mills moved in to the house next door to the sisters in Monroeville, Ala. She met with each sister on many occasions and never hid the fact that she was taking notes and writing a book.听

鈥淢y book chronicles what really was the last chapter of life as they knew it,鈥� Ms. Mills says in a phone interview. 鈥淚 rented the house next door to theirs with their blessing. They offered to serve as character references. I was there from fall 2004 to the spring of 2006. And unfortunately, Nelle Harper [Lee] suffered a serious stroke the following year in 2007 and has not been able to live at home since then.鈥�

In reference to how her relationship with Lee unraveled thereafter, Mills says, 鈥淭he, um, picture of how her affairs are handled is considerably different from when I lived next door. Alice, for many years, was handling many of her sister鈥檚 affairs. Nelle Harper called her sister 鈥楢tticus in a skirt.鈥� And that tells you about what kind of an attorney she was.鈥�

Upon publication of Mills鈥檚 book in July 2014, Lee released a letter denying she co-operated with Mills on the biography published by Penguin Press.

Tonja Carter, an attorney who worked with Alice Lee in the Lee law firm, and who now appears to speak for Harper Lee, was instrumental in the penning and distribution of that denial letter, according to letters written by Alice Lee.

According to the release on Lee鈥檚 new work, Ms. Carter is credited with finding the "Go Set a Watchman" manuscript.

Alice Lee听 wrote letters which听supported Mills鈥檚 version of the story.听In one of several letters supplied to 海角大神 by Mills's agent at Penguin, one dated May 12, 2011 details how the signed Harper Lee letter disavowing cooperation with Mills鈥檚 biography was written by 鈥淭onja at BBL & Carter鈥檚鈥� law firm and taken to Harper Lee at a convalescent facility to sign. Alice Lee wrote of her sister:

When asked if she believed the new work is something Lee intended to have published as a novel or is, perhaps, one of the many drafts and revisions Lee rejected or set aside during the years she was writing "To Kill a Mocking Bird," Mills responds: 鈥淚 can鈥檛 speak to that. Well, Nelle Harper and I both talked about the revisions and years that went into revising and reshaping what Nelle was writing into what became 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. So, I think it鈥檚 likely that there certainly were earlier, ah, chapters she had written or just earlier pages and versions done well before 'To Kill a Mocking Bird' became 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.鈥�

Mills adds that she did not mean to imply that the new book might not be a separate novel.听鈥淪he certainly wrote a lot before 'To Kill a Mockingbird' was ever published so, I, I, I don鈥檛 know,鈥� Mills says. 鈥淚 have some concerns about the timing of it.鈥�

"To Kill A Mockingbird," published in 1960, chronicles the story of lawyer Atticus Finch and his children Jem and Scout and their life in the mythical town of Maycomb, Ala., during the Great Depression.

Lee won a Pulitzer Prize for the novel in 1961. The book was made into an Academy Award-winning 1962 film starring Gregory Peck.

The Associated Press reports that the new book is set in Lee's famed Maycomb, Ala., during the mid-1950s, 20 years after "To Kill a Mockingbird" and roughly contemporaneous with the time that Lee was writing the story. The civil rights movement was taking hold in her home state. The Supreme Court had ruled unanimously in 1954 that segregated schools were unconstitutional, and the arrest of Rosa Parks in 1955 led to the yearlong Montgomery bus boycott.

"Scout (Jean Louise Finch) has returned to Maycomb from New York to visit her father, Atticus," the publisher's announcement reads. "She is forced to grapple with issues both personal and political as she tries to understand her father's attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she was born and spent her childhood."