--- title: Harper Lee: New Novel 'Go Set a Watchman' to Publish in July description: It will irreversibly change the way we read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' canonical: https://time.com/3694549/harper-lee-new-book-go-set-a-watchman/ author: Lev Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-03T22:26:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:07:29.938Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Harper Lee's 'Go Set a Watchman' Will Realign the Literary Universe og:description: It will also irreversibly change the way we read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' og:url: https://time.com/3694549/harper-lee-new-book-go-set-a-watchman/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfde027762af82eae/69877d85f887dc497ee89ec9/harper-lee1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Pulitzer Prize winner and To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Lee smiles before receiving the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on Nov. 5, 2007 in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Harper Lee's 'Go Set a Watchman' Will Realign the Literary Universe twitter:description: It will also irreversibly change the way we read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfde027762af82eae/69877d85f887dc497ee89ec9/harper-lee1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Harper Lee's _Go Set a Watchman_ Will Realign the Literary Universe > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Lev Grossman](https://time.com/author/lev-grossman/) ## Lev Grossman Feb 3, 2015 10:26 PM UTC  Pulitzer Prize winner and To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Lee smiles before receiving the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on Nov. 5, 2007 in Washington, DC. Pulitzer Prize winner and To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Lee smiles before receiving the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on Nov. 5, 2007 in Washington, DC.Chip Somodevilla—2007 Getty Images by [Lev Grossman](https://time.com/author/lev-grossman/) ## Lev Grossman Feb 3, 2015 10:26 PM UTC Today, to the delight and total consternation of the literary world, HarperCollins announced that it will publish a previously unknown novel by Harper Lee, the author of the classic _To Kill a Mockingbird._ The new novel is called _Go Set a Watchman,_ and it deals with the adult life of “Scout” Finch, whom we met _Mockingbird_ as a six-year-old. When _Go Set a Watchman_ appears in July it will—in subtle but very real ways—realign the literary universe. Among the many things that made _Mockingbird_ special was its singularity: after its release in 1960 Lee never published another book. She’s not the only great one-novel novelist—there’s also Boris Pasternak (Doctor Zhivago), Emily Bronte (Wuthering Heights), Ralph Ellison (Invisible Man), and Margaret Mitchell (Gone with the Wind)—but they’re increasingly rare birds in an age when writers feel obliged to lash themselves to produce the maximum possible verbiage, over the longest possible career, at any cost. But to clarify, this isn’t Lee’s second novel—it’s her first. She wrote _Go Set a Watchman_ in the mid-1950s, before _To Kill a Mockingbird. Watchman_ is about Scout going back to her hometown of Maycomb, Alabama to visit her father, Atticus. At the time the editor she showed it to was more interested in Scout’s memories of her childhood, and suggested Lee write an entire novel just about that. Needless to say she did. Now the manuscript of _Go Set a Watchman_ has been rediscovered by a friend of Lee’s and will be published in July, unchanged. “After much thought and hesitation I shared it with a handful of people I trust,” Lee said in a press release, “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.” (Some [doubt](http://jezebel.com/be-suspicious-of-the-new-harper-lee-novel-1683488258) has been cast on whether Lee—who at 88 has had some health problems and resides in an assisted living facility—is entirely competent to approve the book’s publication; it’s been pointed out that this announcement comes shortly after Lee’s sister and attorney Alice, who often guided her professional interests, passed away in November. But if there’s anything opportunistic or untoward in the book’s publication, so far it’s in the realm of speculation only.) It’s hard to think of a precedent in literary history, though there are parallels—for example, the estate of JD Salinger (another one-novel novelist) will in coming years posthumously publish stories dealing with his most famous characters, Holden Caulfield and the Glass family. It’s anybody’s guess whether _Watchman_ is another masterpiece, but whatever happens it will irreversibly change the way we read _To Kill a Mockingbird._ Atticus Finch is one of the great good fathers of American literature, and his relationship with Scout has been a platonic ideal and a template for any number of parents and children. Is Scout now coming back to Maycomb to resolve some lingering, unresolved, previously unknown conflict with him? From now on _Mockingbird_ won’t just be the story of Scout’s childhood, it will be the answer to a question that we never knew had been asked: how did the hero of _Go Set a Watchman_ become the woman that she is? One mystery that _Watchman_ won’t solve is why Lee never wrote again. That her warm, generous, instantly familiar voice fell silent is one of the enduring enigmas of literary history, and most likely will remain that way. But _Watchman_ will at least tell us whether Lee’s voice was already there, before she wrote _Mockingbird,_ or whether that particular voice arrived to tell that particular story. As to why it vanished, we may only ever know what Lee said in one of her very few public appearances, when she accepted the Alabama Medal of Freedom in 2001: “Well, it’s better to be silent than be a fool.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3694549/harper-lee-new-book-go-set-a-watchman/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3694549/harper-lee-new-book-go-set-a-watchman/"},"headline":"Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman Will Realign the Literary Universe","datePublished":"2015-02-03T22:26:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:07:29.938Z","description":"Expect Harper Lee's unexpected new book to forever change the way we read To Kill a Mockingbird","url":"https://time.com/3694549/harper-lee-new-book-go-set-a-watchman/","keywords":["Books","To Kill a Mockingbird","Harper Lee"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfde027762af82eae/69877d85f887dc497ee89ec9/harper-lee1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lev Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lev-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfde027762af82eae/69877d85f887dc497ee89ec9/harper-lee1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pulitzer Prize winner and To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Lee smiles before receiving the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on Nov. 5, 2007 in Washington, DC.","caption":"Pulitzer Prize winner and To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Lee smiles before receiving the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on Nov. 5, 2007 in Washington, DC.","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—2007 Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3694549/harper-lee-new-book-go-set-a-watchman/","name":"Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman Will Realign the Literary Universe"}}]}] ```