The Land of Sweet Forever contains eight short stories written before Harper Lee began work in earnest on the novel that would become To Kill a Mockingbird, during a period when Lee was submitting her short fiction to journals and periodicals. The typescripts of these stories were among the papers Lee left in her New York City apartment upon her death in 2016. In 2024, the Estate made the decision to publish the stories alongside eight non-fiction pieces by Lee, which appeared in a range of publications between 1961 and 2006, collected together for the first time and now brought back into the public eye.
The resulting collection offers a fascinating new perspective on an iconic and unique literary mind, one of America’s most beloved authors. From the Alabama schoolyards of Lee’s youth to the luncheonettes and movie houses of mid-century Manhattan, from Lee’s reflections on the responsible teaching of children to a delightful account of Gregory Peck and the To Kill A Mockingbird film set, The Land of Sweet Forever broadens our understanding of Lee’s remarkable talent. The collection is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Lee’s development as a writer as her craft defines itself across years and outlets before and after Go Set A Watchman and To Kill A Mockingbird – as well as a touchstone in still-vital conversations about politics, equality, travel, love, fiction, art, the American South and what it means to lead an engaged and creative life.
Dr. Edwin Conner, Lee’s nephew, reflects: “As a member of Harper Lee’s surviving family, I know I speak for all of us in saying that we’re delighted that these essays, and especially the short stories, which we knew existed but were only recently discovered, have been found and are being published. She was not just our beloved aunt, but a great American writer, and we can never know too much about how she came to that pinnacle.”
ABOUT HARPER LEE
Harper Lee was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She is the author of the acclaimed To Kill a Mockingbird, originally published in 1960, and Go Set a Watchman, published in July 2015. Lee received the Pulitzer Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and numerous other literary awards and honors. She died on February 19, 2016.
ABOUT CASEY CEP
Casey Cep is at work on the authorized biography of Harper Lee. A staff writer at The New Yorker, she is the author of the bestselling book Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee. She was born and raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where she still lives with her family.
