Harper Lee insists she is ‘alive and kicking’ and ‘happy as hell’ amid reports that she’s not quite fit enough to OK the publication of her sequel to* To Kill A Mockingbird*.
The other day, we brought you news that Lee, who won a Pulitzer with her novel* To Kill A Mockingbird*, is to release Go Set A Watchman in July this year. We were pretty excited, but since then, the news of the book started to look a bit iffy.
Harper has been left forgetful and nearly blind and deaf ever since a stroke in 2007, which led commentators to say she could be vulnerable to the wants of other people around her. The announcement of the book also comes just three months after the death of Alice Lee, Harper’s older sister, who was her lawyer until she retired aged 100 in 2010, reports Jezebel.
One writer from Gawker reported that Harper ‘has a history of signing whatever’s put in front of her’ by her new-ish lawyer, Sonja Carter.
Does this mean the book is bad? Well, we haven’t read it to know yet, but a publisher told Harper in 1955 that it was best to not put it out there. In the meantime, Harper said she thought the manuscript had gone missing.
However, maybe in a bid to clear up this speculation, Harper has released a statement to say: ‘I’m alive and kicking and happy as hell with the reactions to Watchman.’
Fingers crossed that publishing the book is the right thing to do – the above statement was supplied by Carter, reports The Wall Street Journal – and Harper doesn’t get ripped off, right?
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.