Harper Lee herself couldn't come up with a better plot: Famously private author suddenly decides at age 88 to publish a sequel to her beloved original novel after 55 years of barely a word from her.
Did Lee decide to do this on her own? Was it the work of those advising the "To Kill a Mockingbird" author since the death of her beloved sister? Some have asked if she even knows it's being done.
We may never know the answers, but all literary eyes right now are on Monroeville, Lee's hometown and the model for Maycomb in "Mockingbird." At nearly 90, and in an assisted living facility, Lee is in a position most all would agree she'd hate to find herself - at the center of a firestorm so public it would rival any book or movie. As the plot thickens, here are the major players:
HARPER LEE
Novelist Harper Lee currently lives in Meadows of Monroeville, a small, assisted living facility on the outskirts of the town. (Connor Sheets | [email protected])
Though intensely private, Lee has never been a recluse. Until recent years, she was a fixture who was often out and about in Monroeville and at various events, splitting her time between her childhood home and New York. She now lives at the Meadows of Monroeville, an assisted living facility. A 2013 lawsuit filed against attorney Samuel Pinkus said he "duped" her into assigning her "To Kill a Mockingbird" copyright to a company he owned. The lawsuit, which was settled, described her condition: "For over 15 years, she has suffered from increasingly serious deafness and, for 6-7 years, macular degeneration, which makes it difficult for her to read documents not printed in very large type. In 2007, she suffered a stroke, making it difficult for her to move around easily, but not affecting her mental capabilities." She is rarely seen in public now, although she did attend the funeral of her sister, Alice, in November.
TONJA CARTER
Harper Lee's attorney has been with Barnett, Bugg, Lee & Carter since graduating from the University of Alabama School of Law in 2006. That's the firm where Alice Lee had practiced law since 1944. Carter and her husband, a pilot named Pat, opened the Prop & Gavel restaurant in Monroeville in 2013, according to the Alabama Tourism Department. The restaurant is now closed. In this week's press release about the new book, Lee is quoted as saying she was "surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it." Some have questioned that. "Tonja Carter doesn't allow her to see her friends anymore," Janet Sawyer, owner of Monroeville's Courthouse Cafe, told AL.com. "She's isolated her from the world in order to manipulate her." Efforts by two AL.com reporters to reach Carter for comment have been unsuccessful.
Alice Lee at 99. (Ben Raines/Press-Register)
ALICE LEE
The eldest sister of Harper Lee, who was the oldest attorney practicing law in Alabama in 2012, died in November at the age of 103. (A middle sister, Louise Conner, died in 2009 at age 93.) Some, like Sawyer, think Carter decided to publish "Go Set a Watchman" after Alice Lee's death. Others, like Alabama historian Wayne Flynt, believe that Alice may have set the wheels in motion with her sister before her death. All agree that Lee lost a friend, confidante and protector when Alice died.
'TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD'
Published by J.B. Lippincott in 1960, the book is about attorney Atticus Finch, his children Scout and Jem, and a rape trial in which Finch represented a black defendant in Maycomb, a small Southern town modeled after Monroeville. Lee's own father, Amasa Coleman Lee, defended two black men in a murder trial in 1919 and is believed to be the inspiration for Atticus Finch. The book earned Lee the 1961 Pulitzer Prize. A 1962 film version starred Gregory Peck, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Although a beloved American classic, the book is not without its own controversies. A persistent literary parlor game is wondering if Truman Capote, a childhood friend of Lee's, wrote the book or heavily edited it. ("That's the biggest lie ever told," Alice said to the Washington Post). In addition, "To Kill a Mockingbird" has been banned from some libraries because of its use of racial epithets. Last year, when "To Kill a Mockingbird" became available as an e-book, HarperCollins said that it had sold more than 30 million copies and sold more than 1 million additional copies each year.
'GO SET THE WATCHMAN'
HarperCollins Publishers announced that Harper, one of its imprints, would publish Lee's "Go Set the Watchman" on July 14, 2015. Though finished before "To Kill a Mockingbird," the book is a sequel. "It features the character known as Scout as an adult woman," Lee said in a statement attributed to her. The release quoted Lee as saying Carter, the attorney, found the manuscript. "I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication," she said. "I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years." The release said that Carter discovered the manuscript "in a secure location where it had been affixed to an original typescript of 'To Kill a Mockingbird.'" In a statement released Thursday through Carter, Lee said she was "alive and kicking and happy as hell with the reactions of 'Watchman.'"
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