@BosM I wouldn’t necessarily trust what the publisher of the novel, who has a vested interest in its commercial success has to say about it. There is a lot of controversy even about how incapacitated Lee is and why the manuscript, which was possibly lost, has been rediscovered by Tonya Carter, Lee’s lawyer since her sister died last year.
I heard a piece on NPR yesterday – which unfortunately I can’t find right now which said that the novel was rejected for publication in the 50s as being too timely and controversial and it was suggested that Lee recast it from a child’s point of view and set it in the 30s. The new version became To Kill a Mockingbird.
Here is another piece from NPR about the history of the new novel and Monroeville. This is the one @Espiritus_Corvus cited but there are many more articles and opinions in the NY Times, on NPR and in other places.
Here is an article from this week’s Times that shows Lee to be sociable and with it as late as 2004.
And Here is a an article (“ripped from today’s headlines”) that clearly describes Go Set a Watchman as a first version of Mockingbird which Lee was told to rewrite from a child’s point of view and in which Finch is portrayed as a racist. I have to say I have issues with its publication.
“The truth shall set you free” – but, as in Rashomon, there are many versions of the truth in this case. I’ll be teaching To Kill a Mockingbrid this Fall but I am reserving judgment about the publication of its sequel or prequel.