First Chapter of Go Set a Watchman to Preview Online Friday

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A preview of the first chapter of Go Set a Watchman, one of the most highly anticipated books of the summer, will be available on the websites of the Wall Street Journal and the U.K.’s the Guardian starting Friday, July 10.

Harper Lee, the book’s author, who is now 89, was thought never to have written another novel aside from the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird.

Buzz for Go Set a Watchman, to be published by HarperCollins’ Harper imprint, has been going strong since February, when the publisher announced the existence of Lee’s second book.

Bookstores across the country are counting down to Go Set a Watchman’s July 14 publication, and many have planned release night parties, To Kill a Mockingbird read-a-thons, and screenings of the 1962 movie starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch.

Accordingly, preorders from bookstores and online retailers have been through the roof since HarperCollins’ announcement, and the first printing of Go Set a Watchman has been set at more than two million copies. “The preorders are a record high,” said Tina Andreadis, senior vice president and director of publicity at HarperCollins. “It is the most preordered book in HarperCollins’ history.”

Harper chose to run the preview in the WSJ — which, like HarperCollins, is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. — in order to reach the greatest number of readers via the newspaper with the largest audience, explained Andreadis. “The Wall Street Journal approached us with a fantastic package,” Andreadis said. “[It’s] the number-one paid circulating newspaper in the United States [at] 2.3 million.” 

The second book of Lee’s career tells the story of a grown-up Scout returning home to Maycomb, Alabama, to visit her father, Atticus, 20 years after the events of the first book.

A preview of the first chapter of the Go Set a Watchman audiobook, narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Reese Witherspoon, will also appear online at WSJ.com and TheGuardian.com on July 10. The preview will appear in the print editions of both newspapers on Saturday, July 11.