Harper Lee, Go Set a Watchman

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Despite being dismissed by some critics as little more than a mediocre first draft of

To Kill a Mockingbird

, Harper Lee’s

Go Set a Watchman

quickly became the most talked about book of 2015, breaking sales records for its publisher and touching off vigorous debates among teachers, historians, literature scholars and everyday readers.

Go Set a Watchman was Lee’s first attempt at fiction, sold in manuscript form to Lippincott publishers in 1957. Tay Hohoff, Lee’s editor at Lippincott, asked the author to move the novel’s setting from the late 1950s to the 1930s and to tell the story from a child’s perspective. The case history suggests this was because Ms. Hohoff viewed the novel as too volatile, telling unpalatable truths about race in the 1950s. The product of Hohoff’s

3093 words

Citation: Chura, Patrick. "Go Set a Watchman". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 October 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35664, accessed 28 March 2024.]

35664 Go Set a Watchman 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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