Years ago, when my children were young and devoted Harry Potter fans, the prospects of another Harry Potter book produced an almost palpable sense of anticipation.
Each new book went on sale at one minute after midnight at major book retailers, and I found myself, along with two sleepy-eyed but determined kids, waiting vigil-like at the nearest Barnes & Noble bookstore in Mesa, Arizona, as the magic moment arrived and we could redeem our numbered ticket at the sales counter and pick up a copy of the latest J.K. Rowling story.
The kids are grown now, and there is no new Harry Potter adventure on the horizon, yet I may well find myself in line (if such conduct warrants) on July 14 when what may be the most anticipated book ever released goes on sale.
Harper Publishing, a subsidiary of HarperCollins, announced Tuesday it will publish the novel “Go Set a Watchman,” by Harper Lee. The book is an unpublished first novel from the reclusive Alabama writer, now 88, who says the book was source material for her only published work, “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
The news spread like wildfire in the literary community and among readers alike. “To Kill a Mockingbird” is recognized broadly as one of the most popular American novels ever written, followed by a movie that earned eight Academy Award nominations and made Atticus Finch, as portrayed by Gregory Peck, an quintessential American hero. The publisher said it will make an initial printing of two million copies, so yeah, they anticipate the book will be greeted with a large audience.
The book’s story of a bucolic Southern town set in the 1920s and its underlying theme of the struggle against racial injustice, has endured for decades as a beloved American story. And much as it was with J.D. Salinger, Lee’s solitary work led to years of speculation as to whether the author would ever again publish a novel. Fifty-five years later, that seemed unlikely.
According to the statement from the publisher that quoted Lee, the manuscript was thought to have been long ago lost. In the statement, Lee says her editor, upon seeing the “Go Set a Watchman” manuscript was intrigued by an adult character in the novel named “Scout” who had flashbacks to her childhood. The editor liked those childhood remembrances so much that Lee was encouraged to write a different book told through the eyes of the adolescent Scout. That effort turned out to be “To Kill a Mockingbird,” published in 1960.
No doubt, fans of that Pulitzer Prize winner will be eager to learn what has happened to Scout. What will her story be? What will be the driving themes? Will our favorite characters – Atticus, Jem, Calpurnia, Dill, Boo Radley- return? Can the new (older) novel possibly compare favorably to her famous work?
For local novelists Michael Farris Smith (“Rivers”) and Deborah Johnson (“The Secret of Magic”) it will be a revealing glimpse into the evolution of a great American novelist.
Both writers acknowledge “To Kill a Mockingbird” as a formidable, memorable contribution to American Literature.
“I read it when I was young and I remember it. That’s always the mark of a great book,” Smith says.
“I think my parents got one of the first editions,” Johnson says. “It was always around as long as I can remember.”
From an author’s perspective, the brilliance of Lee’s first book is evident in her story-telling, Johnson says.
“It was a seminal book,” she said. “It came out right at the right moment with the right message. Not only that, but it was the way she wrote the book. She wrote so well from a child’s perspective, a child’s point of view of what was happening. And yet, she told a story that was very mature in its message.”
Smith, too, sees the artist’s craft on display in “To Kill a Mockingbird” and says Lee’s ability to tackle an important theme in a simple, unobtrusive way is the mark of brilliance.
“I think the goal is to depict the reality you are trying to create in a way that it comes naturally,” he says. “If you write it true enough, real enough, honest enough, people will grasp the larger meaning you are trying to get out there.”
Johnson admits that it is the reader in her, rather than the writer, who is most intrigued by Lee’s new book.
“Like anyone else, I want to see what Scout is like as a grown woman,” she says. “I want to know what her world is like, what she’s encountering. Will it address the culture of the time she is living in, which I assume would be the 1950s? I want to see if and how she addresses those themes and what she has to say about them.”
Smith, meanwhile, is interested to see what an unpolished first-time writer can do.
“Writing is one of those things that, the more you do it, the better you get at it,” Smith said. “If this really does show us what Harper Lee was like as a writer in the 1950s as someone just getting started, that will be fascinating.”
Even if the book compares poorly to the famous novel that would come a few years later?
Especially so, Smith says.
“Maybe there’s a lesson in that, too,” he says. “If the first book you write isn’t a success, even it isn’t even good at all, that doesn’t mean you should quit. So no matter what, I’m looking forward to it.”
I expect to see Johnson and Smith in that bookstore line come July 14.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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