For ‘Mockingbird’ fans, the wait is almost over

It’s the biggest literary surprise of the 21st century: On Tuesday, 55 years after the publication of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the reclusive 89-year-old Harper Lee will release her second book.

“Go Set a Watchman” is not actually a new book – it was written two years before “Mockingbird” – and details of the plot are scarce. But eager readers have, nonetheless, propelled the novel to the top of best-seller lists with advance sales, and Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins, has ordered an initial print run of 2 million copies.

“People want more Harper Lee,” says Sherri Gallantine, the book buyer for Vroman’s and Book Soup in Southern California. She’s ordered 842 copies of “Watchman,” three times more than the order for fall’s big novel, “Purity” (don’t tell Jonathan Franzen). It’s No. 1 on Amazon, where it has been on the top 10 best-seller list since February, when the title was announced.

Across the country, Lee’s fans are preparing multiple celebrations.

Barnes & Noble stores nationwide will host “Mockingbird” read-a-thons on Monday. New York’s 92nd Street Y will have actress Mary Badham, who played the lead character in the 1962 movie adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” read from “Mockingbird” and “Watchman.”

Lee’s hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, plans walking tours and a marathon reading in the former courthouse. And an updated version of Mary McDonagh Murphy’s documentary film “American Masters: Harper Lee” aired on PBS on Friday; later in the month, it will be released on iTunes and DVD as “Harper Lee: From Mockingbird to Watchman.”

The frenzied anticipation over “Go Set a Watchman” is fueled largely by the place “To Kill a Mockingbird” holds in American culture: It’s beloved by millions, critically acclaimed and still relevant.

The story of injustice, racism and honor in a small Southern town was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. It has sold more than 40 million copies.

“ ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is probably just as important now as it was then,” says Michael Silverblatt, host of KCRW-FM’s “Bookworm.”

How could “Watchman,” which is set in the 1950s and tells the story of an adult Scout Finch, live up to its predecessor?

Few people have been given access to the novel – rarely a good sign in publishing.

Instead, Lee gave the public a sample of the book. The first chapter of “Watchman” ran in two newspapers Friday: the Wall Street Journal (which, like the book’s publishing house, is owned by Rupert Murdoch) and the Guardian in Britain.

It revealed, according to the Associated Press, that Atticus Finch is 72 and suffering from rheumatoid arthritis; Scout is a grown woman who has a suitor most anxious to marry her; and Scout’s older brother, Jem, apparently has died.

The story begins with Scout, otherwise known as Jean Louise Finch, returning by train to Maycomb, on one of several annual visits she makes from New York, where she is greeted by young Henry Clinton.

Lee never published another book and hasn’t given an official interview since 1964. The author was assumed to be one-hit wonder – even Lee’s longtime attorney, her sister, thought she was done with publishing. Filmmaker Murphy recalls that when she interviewed Alice Finch Lee, who died in 2014 at 103, “She said she did not believe there were any other novels,” Murphy says. “What I think Alice didn’t know was there was another manuscript sitting underneath other manuscripts.”

According to the book’s publisher, Lee attorney Tonya Carter was checking on the original manuscript of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which is held in a secret location in Monroeville, and found the pages of “Go Set a Watchman” attached to the back of it last year.

This discovery has been steeped in controversy. Lee suffered a stroke in 2007 and, according to various legal documents, is partially blind, deaf and easily manipulated, prompting speculation about whether she has been a full participant in the decision to publish this book. The Alabama Securities Commission investigated allegations of elder abuse but found no reason to intervene.

Further questions swirled around the timing of the discovery: Why did it surface only months after Alice died? And was the manuscript a forgotten novel or an early draft of “To Kill a Mockingbird”?

A statement released by Lee’s attorney in February suggested the latter. It quoted Lee as saying, “In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called ‘Go Set a Watchman.’ 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 from the point of view of the young Scout. I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told.”

Charles Shields, author of 2006’s “Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee,” considered the most complete biography of the author, said that while digging through Columbia University’s publishing archives, he saw literary agents’ notecards, which show that a manuscript titled “Go Set a Watchman” was submitted; later the title was crossed out and changed to “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

If Shields could talk to Lee, he says, “I’d ask, ‘Why are you bringing it out now?’ ”

Among the few who’ve read the manuscript is Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham.

“It’s clearly very close to Harper Lee in terms of her life,” he says. “It gives you amazing insight and perception.”

Lee recently had lunch in Monroeville with her publishers and agent. Dispelling rumors about her lack of well-being, Burnham said, “She’s excited about the release.”

Aside from questions about how this book came to exist and why it’s taken so long to reach the public, there is the issue of taste: Will the views of a shy Southern writer in the late 1950s stand up to contemporary scrutiny?

For those who remember and adore “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the opportunity to revisit Atticus and Scout is likely too tempting to pass up.

“The idea that you get to find out what happened to Scout, or you get to see Atticus again – these are tantalizing things, and, of course, you want to know more,” says Murphy.

When readers crave more from the writers they love, publishers comply. Novels by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Vladimir Nabokov were published after their deaths. “Invisible Man” author Ralph Ellison, struggled for years to complete another novel. After his death, the untitled manuscript was published in two forms: an edited version considered not to meet his vision and an 1,100-page version that revealed all the narrative dead ends he’d never fixed.

Unlike those authors, Lee is still with us, making “Watchman” unprecedented. Publisher Burnham cannot think of a comparison. He says, “There’s nothing quite like this.”