"They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions...but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” That is a quote by Atticus Finch in Chapter 11 of the American classic, “To Kill a Mockingbird”. The pages of this novel have been dog eared and worn down in my home, and many other homes across the country.

Harper Lee wrote “To Kill a Mockingbird” in 1960, and it is still read in most high school English classes today. It was a quick bestseller, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. In fact, it is still a bestseller even today, with 30 million copies in print. Since publishing this excellent work, she has declined countless requests for interviews and public appearances, and was not believed to have written anything more.

But in February of 2015, it was announced that there would be another book by the author released on July 14th of this year. “Go Set a Watchman” is a novel set later in Scout’s life, as she is a grown woman and her father Atticus is 72 years old while suffering from a form of arthritis. It is a sequel to “To Kill a Mockingbird”, however, it was completed beforehand. At the time, Harper Lee’s editor persuaded her to focus on Scout’s flashbacks to her childhood, as a separate novel altogether, thus became “To Kill a Mockingbird”.

The anticipation for this book is clear, as the “U.S. publisher HarperCollins has said that pre-orders for “Go Set a Watchman” are the highest in company history and bookstores worldwide are planning events to celebrate the book's release.” No one knew this continuation existed, and now it is about to be unveiled after many years of staying hidden.

Despite this highly awaited creation, of course there have been some suspicions which have arisen in regards to Lee’s state. People have questioned whether she truly wants this book to be published, or if she prefers to have it stay private. Once Mockingbird did so well in the 60s, it was difficult for Lee to write another, so she decided that one would stand on its own. That settlement has clearly been changed since then, or has it been altered for her?

Harper Lee was born in 1926, which makes her 88 years old and nearly blind and deaf due to the effects of a 2007 stroke. Her entire life she has maintained the status that she is not planning on publishing another book. That is why, when the statement reporting otherwise was released, there was speculation involved. Fans of Lee suspect that “Go Set a Watchman,” “was approved without the 89 year old author’s full awareness.” She occupies an assisted living facility in Alabama, but nonetheless, her lawyer, literary agent, and publisher insist she is ecstatic about the books upcoming release next week. But despite all of the speculations, she did indeed say in the announcement in February that “In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called ‘Go Set a Watchman’…I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years.”

Now it is up to us to draw our own conclusions. Whether this disclosure of the book was published at the liberty of Harper Lee herself, or others involved is uncertain. The fact is that the release of “Go Set A Watchman” unleashes a heavy layer of excitement, as it is the continuation to one of the greatest works in American literature, as it is put onto shelves as Harper Lee’s first novelization in 55 years.