out the dining car window with a delight almost physical. over her breakfast coffee she watched the last of georgia s hills recede and the red earth appear. reporter: the first words of go set a watchman, narrated by reese witherspoon. an early taste of what was the first draft of to kill a mockingbird. harper lee actually wrote while living right here on this very stretch of road on new york s upper east side in the 1950s. for almost six decades go set a watchman was
why the backlash? there has been a lot of shock. the backlash is because people associated with this character. some parents even named their children adicus after this character. and now we re seeing a different version of what harper lee was envisioning. an earlier vision. after revising and revising, the book became what we now know as to kill a mockingbird. so what we are seeing released all around the world is an earlier version, an earlier draft. and for literary types, it s going to be interesting to compare the earlier draft with the later draft. you mentioned this coming out this hour on the east coast of the u.s. i m seeing people on twitter lining up waiting to buy the first few copies. we re going to see it rolled out all around the world. it s already available in the u.k. and elsewhere. people are going to be devouring this book and debating this book and debating how it stands next
to the original book. of course and as you mentioned, go set a watchman was written before mockingbird , so why did harper lee remain silent for so many years? that is a mystery that will always be with us. and perhaps people who read the book and then review the book will have their theories about that. she seemed very content for a long time to have that be her one and only book. now her legacy really, is reopened and maybe opened to revision as we read this second book. and there were hints yesterday about maybe a third manuscript. it s all quite mysterious. there have been a lot of questions about whether the 89-year-old author wants this to be published at all. but her representatives say she does. and one person i know who was able to visit with harper lee recently a film maker, said that harper affirmed she does want this released. a real mystery surrounding this
all time with preorders through the roof. harper lee s second novel, go set a watchman comes out. lee is best known for her pulitzer prizewinning 1960 novel to kill a mockingbird. the book is hailed as an american classic in part because of the treatment of the country s racial tensions. interestingly enough lee wrote her new novel before she wrote mockingbird, but it s only being released now. early reviews reveal that the new book has a shocking twist for one of the best-loved characters for to kill a mockingbird. we don t want to give it away. but we re about to. and why it took so long to bring the book to light. since atlanta, she had looked