The Mystery of a New Book
By Dr Syed Amir
Bethesda, MD

The book is months away from publication, its presumed 88 years old author is in a nursing home and no one is sure if she is even mentally competent and responsive. Nevertheless, the prepublication sales orders are skyrocketing. The excitement has been set off by the anticipation that Harper Lee, who created a stunningly successful book over half a century ago, is about to unveil another.

The celebrated author wrote her first and only book, To Kill a Mockingbird, in 1960, when she was 34 years old. It became an instant bestseller and in one year more than 50,000 copies were sold. It is now characterized as a classic of 20 th century English literature that won for the author the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, the highest US literary award. Then, unexplainably, Harper Lee withdrew from public spotlight, vowing that she would never again write another book in her lifetime.

The novel, To Kill a Mocking Bird, because of its enduring popularity has never gone out of print, and millions of copies have been sold worldwide, bringing the author an estimated income of four millions dollars a year from royalty. Passages drawn from it have been incorporated into school text books, and a film based on the novel won an Oscar Award in 1962.

The story of To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the mid-thirties in a small town in rural Alabama, a relatively poor state in the Deep South of the US. This was the period when the country was going through a severe economic depression and segregation and racial discrimination against black Americans were rampant, especially in the southern states. The story is told from the perspective of a young girl named Scout Finch, who is only six years old and has been brought up, along with her older brother, by her widowed father, Atticus Finch, a lawyer by profession. They are an unusual family for the time as they are opposed to racial prejudice and mistreatment of blacks. The family has a neighbor who leads a reclusive, strange life and few in the village have much interaction with him. However, the two children are especially curious and inquisitive about him and attempt to intrude on his privacy. Paradoxically, the neighbor becomes fond of them and frequently leaves small gifts anonymously for them in inconspicuous places.

The story then takes an unpleasant turn. A young white woman of uncertain character and her father accuse a black man in the village of raping her and bring a legal case against him in court. The charge is baseless, and, if anything, the girl has tried unsuccessfully to seduce the black man. Scout Finch’s father agrees to defend the black man as he has come to believe that the accusation is false. His decision to defend a black man ignites a wave of condemnation and ridicule on the part of others, who label him as a nigger-lover, a highly pejorative epithet. The father once faces an angry crowd intent on lynching him; only the intervention of his children saves him.

Despite the absence of any incriminating evidence, the black man is convicted by the trial jury, and has a tragic ending. He is shot and killed while trying to escape from prison. Even his death does not satisfy his accusers. The man who accused the black man of rape is still simmering inside, longing to take revenge on the family of the lawyer. He stalks and attacks the young children as they walk home after attending some school function. Defenseless, they are in grave danger and are saved by the intervention of the same reclusive neighbor who had intrigued and mystified them for years.

The story of To Kill a Mockingbird is considered a powerful commentary on the cultural norms of its time, promoting a very progressive and enlightened vision. It mirrors the flaws of the then prevailing American social scene in which discrimination and injustices against blacks were routinely practiced and accepted, even though slavery had legally been abolished decades earlier.

Many critics have suggested that the characters depicted in the novel were borrowed from the author’s own life story and reflect her own experiences while growing up in a small town in Alabama. Her father in real life was a lawyer. The author has, however, denied this correlation. Never married, Harper Lee retreated into a life of obscurity, spending her time mostly in New York City as a virtual recluse, keeping sparse contacts with friends and, unlike most celebrities, giving no interviews. In 2007, she suffered a stroke that forced her to move back to her hometown and ultimately into a nursing home.

Then in early 2015, the literary world was rocked by the announcement by her lawyer that a new, hitherto unknown, manuscript of a book, Go Set a Watchman, written by Lee had been discovered in her old papers and would be published in July by Harper Collins who also published her first book. The announcement has ignited much debate focusing on whether the author, in her current cognitive state, is capable of giving her informed consent for the publication of a manuscript which had remained concealed all these years. Access to her is limited and strictly regulated by her lawyer who oversees her affairs. The few friends who have been permitted to visit the author have expressed discordant opinions about her mental acuity. Some have the impression that she is fully alert and thrilled by the news that her old manuscript has been discovered and will soon be published. Others have come away skeptical and with the impression that she is profoundly deaf and not fully able to make important decisions.

Other troubling issues have also been raised. Apparently, the existence of the manuscript has been known to at least some people and they believe it is the predecessor of the book that ultimately came out as her highly successful novel, To Kill a Mocking Bird. According to this version, the author had originally shown this manuscript that is being hailed as new to the publishers, but they rejected it, advising her to reconfigure the story and the characters. She took their advice, completely rewrote the book, created new characters and the revised book appeared as To Kill a Mockingbird.

Some of Harper Lee’s friends are concerned that the literary quality of the decades-old manuscript that is due to be published under the title, Go Set a Watchman, is unknown. Whether she ever revised or edited it is similarly undermined, especially since she had no intention of publishing it. If the new book does not meet the superior standard and high expectations set by the first book, it might tarnish the legacy and reputation of the author. Should that be the case, Lee’s original decision not to publish another book will be vindicated as both prudent and prescient.