News Release

For Immediate Release

Contact: Colin Boyd
Health Communications
(703)786-3483
boyd2cr@dukes.jmu.edu

Jeff Zucker
CNN CEO
(404)827-1500
community@cnn.com

Harper Lee publishes sequel to How to Kill a Mockingbird.

NEW YORK CITY, NY- Feb. 3, 2015. 55 years after the release of To Kill a Mockingbird,
Harper Lee announces a sequel to the original book. The title of the next book will be Go Set a
Watchman. This new book will feature the original character Scout but as an adult woman.
Lee announced that this book was long lost and found 55 years after originally written.
The plot of this book is Scout returning to her hometown to visit her father. When interviewed of
a summary of a book Lee said She [Scout] is forced to grapple with issues both personal and
political as she tries to understand her father's attitude toward society, and her own feelings about
the place where she was born and spent her childhood.
At 88 years old, Harper Lee is suffering from many conditions. These conditions include
serious deafness, muscular degeneration and a stroke. These conditions make it difficult for her
read and move around. Even though she suffers from these conditions at the age of 88, her
mental capability is not affected and therefore wants to continue with the release of the new
book.
-more-

Fans of the original To Kill a Mockingbird will be excited for the unexpected gift Lee
is presenting them with. Jonathan Burnham, Lees senior vice president and publisher describes
the new book as a remarkable literary event. This book about the relationship between a father
and daughter living in the racially unequal 1950s is sure to be a new literary masterpiece.
-endAbout To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird was originally written in 1960 and won a Pulitzer Prize and later
made into a film. This film won Gregory Peck [Atticus Finch] an Oscar for best actor. Being a
frequent part pf the high school reading list, as of 2006 the book had sold mopre than 30 million
copies. To Kill a Mockingbird is a first person account of the main character Scout, a 10-yearold during 1936. The book surrounds on her fathers case of defending a black man in court for
allegedly raping a woman. This causes many hardships and troubling times for Scout.