Harper Lee News Jolts the World

When it was announced in December that Toni Morrison would have a new novel published in April (God Help the Child), the literary world was abuzz. But if the Toni Morrison news was a large wave, then consider the Harper Lee announcement Tuesday a full-blown earthquake.

HarperCollins will publish Lee's long-lost novel Go Set a Watchman July 14, her first since the 1960 publication of the classic To Kill a Mockingbird.

"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," Lee said in the publisher's press release. "I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told. I hadn't realized it had survived, so I was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it. After much thought and hesitation I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication. I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years."

The press release also said that the manuscript was found attached to an original typescript of Lee's classic novel. In Go Set a Watchman, Scout will be heading back to Maycomb, Alabama 20 years after the events of To Kill a Mockingbird to visit her father Atticus. At this point, it would be the 1950s (Mockingbird takes place during the Great Depression), so issues of race in a small Southern town will likely play a role as well as the continued relationship between father and daughter.

I first read Mockingbird the spring semester of my freshman year of high school. In the fall, we had read John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and I did not care for it. My honors English teacher, Mr. Webb, was effusive toward both Steinbeck and Lee. As is the unfortunate norm today, the class was skeptical about reading them. Reading Lee's novel was a delight for me and most of the class agreed. It was through his class that I read Lee's terrific novel and saw the film adaptation starring Gregory Peck, featuring one of my favorite scenes ever, Atticus' closing argument.

The book has been the target of bans over the years and been called naive and idealistic in some circles, which I completely disagree. The novel's essence is about growing up and realizing things don't always work out the way they should because of accepted societal horrors like institutional racism. After all, if it were truly idealistic, Tom Robinson would have been set free in the end.

Lee, left, is famously private, so any news regarding her is big news. One of her more recent public appearances was in 2007 when she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush. In 2010, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. Last year, former Chicago Tribune reporter Marja Mills wrote a memoir about living next to Lee, who vehemently blasted it on multiple occasions. The literary world is still split on the merits of that book (I have opted not to read it), but it speaks to the general public's desire for more from Lee, since she only wrote one published novel. Thanks to the discovery of the Watchman manuscript, we get to go back to Maycomb as Lee originally wrote it and on her own terms. You can bet that I'll be reading it this summer.

Already, people are speculating as to whether or not it will be able to be successful in the shadow of Mockingbird. Thankfully for me, it has been years since I read Lee's original masterpiece, so I plan to read the sequel first, then the original, so as to not taint the newer novel.

To Kill a Mockingbird Banned?

This week is Banned Books Week, which spotlights novels and literature that people have deemed unfit, primarily in the public school system. When most people think of a banned book, they think of something like James Joyce's Ulysses because of its historical significance. However, a quick review of books most sought to be banned includes the Harry Potter series, Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, A Wrinkle in Time, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Lord of the Rings, and To Kill a Mockingbird. There are dozens upon dozens of books that have come under a ban scrutiny, but I mention these specifically because I read them all in high school or at an earlier age.

Two years ago, Marshall University mapped out reasons why 'Mockingbird' was challenged in schools across the country in recent years, mostly due to racist language and part of the plot that involves an alleged rape of a white female by a black man. When it comes to the language, I liken it to some degree to Disney banning their 1946 film "Song of the South" from the home video market. My generation knows the song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" and characters of the film from the Splash Mountain water ride at Disney theme parks around the world, but we've never seen it. Maybe a clip or two at best. To be fair, many critics of the film blasted it for more than the language, namely the stereotyping of African-Americans. I detest the use of the n-word and it is horrific, but it was an accepted societal norm for the time. We should be able to explain or understand that words or expressions used back then are no longer accepted by society in general.

The 1962 film version of 'Mockingbird' is excellent as well, despite the sets obviously being on the Universal backlot in California. (When we viewed it in my freshman English class, my teacher liked to point out an early shot in the film that pans down to the Finch home and you can clearly see large mountains in the background that would be out of place in Alabama). As with most people who've seen the movie, I raved about Gregory Peck's Oscar-winning performance as Atticus Finch after I saw it, especially in regards to the final courtroom scene when he implores jurors not to convict his client, a black man accused of raping a white woman...

The scene is a landmark in cinema and has inspired many to get into the legal profession, but we wouldn't have had the scene without Lee's classic novel. It is my belief that because so many schools feature 'Mockingbird' in their curriculum, generations will now see the revolting ugliness of racism and seek changes for the better. Several of the books that people sought to ban like 'Catcher' and 'Mice and Men' I don't care for personally, but I would never seek a ban.

Is there a book that has been challenged to be banned that you've read and liked?