NEW YORK – Harper Lee’s attorney has provided her fullest accounting yet of how she came upon the manuscript for “Go Set a Watchman.”

In an essay posted late Sunday on the Wall Street Journal’s website, Tonja Carter wrote that last summer she was at a gathering of Lee’s friends and family members when “talk turned” to a possible second novel by the author of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” According to Carter, it was the first time she had heard of the book’s existence.

She then searched in a safe deposit box that contained some of Lee’s papers and found “Watchman” underneath “a significant number of pages of another typed text.”

“Go Set a Watchman,” written before “Mockingbird” but set 20 years later, comes out Tuesday.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.