Legendary author Harper Lee was adamant that she won't release another novel after "To Kill a Mockingbird," which became a staple in readers' shelves since its release in 1960. The successful book sold 40 million copies and had a movie adaptation.
For 50 years, Lee kept her word until news that fans will see a masterwork of hers once more in a new book, "Go Set a Watchman," which will be published on July 14 with the first 2 million copies set to be printed.
As this momentous day in the literary world inches closer, readers hark back to the success of Lee's first book that scored the author from Monroeville, Ala., a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. Undeniably, the 89-year-old writer's stroke of genius still resonates up to this time.
Half a century after its publication, the book that told Scout Finch's story of courage and struggle during America's Depression returned to the best-seller lists and its sales spiked. "To Kill a Mockingbird" gives a back story to "Go Set a Watchman," which features Scout as an adult woman.
"I knew sales would increase, but not at this rate before publication," Michael Morrison, president and publisher of HarperCollins U.S. General Books Group and Canada, admitted in an article in The Wall Street Journal. Between February 3 and May 30 this year, the company shipped 369,000 copies, a little too many from last year's 59,000.
Interestingly, "To Kill a Mockingbird" was the result of Lee's rewriting efforts and revisions back when she worked on "Go Set a Watchman." The latter was eventually drowned by the success of the former and was immediately forgotten until last year, when the manuscript for the book came to light.
"I hadn't realized it had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it," the author, who was keen in keeping a low profile and only entertained sporadic interviews, said in a press release of HarperCollins back in February.
"I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years," she went on to say. Fans of the author, on the other hand, are out of words in the nearing publication of "Go Set a Watchman" as it is something they've long waited.
In preparation for the official outing of "Go Set a Watchman," which tore through the top of the bestseller's list and broke pre-order records overnight, various book events are being held to honor the transcendence of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and cheer for the arrival of the new classic.