Harper Lee Bombshell: How News of Book Unfolded

Surprise Story of How HarperCollins Came to Publish New Work Related to ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Captivates and Shocks Literary World

Harper Lee, shown in 2010, author of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’

Photo: Associated Press

When Andrew Nurnberg, a London-based literary agent, called a meeting with HarperCollins senior executive Michael Morrison last October, the publisher assumed they would have a routine chat about coming book projects.

Instead, Mr. Nurnberg showed up on Oct. 27 at Mr. Morrison’s 22nd-floor office in lower Manhattan with a bombshell: He was in possession of a photocopy of “Go Set a Watchman,” an original typewritten manuscript by Harper Lee, author of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

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