Go Set a Tombstone

Harper Lee, who wrote one of America's most enduring literary classics, "To Kill a Mockingbird," and surprised readers 55 years later with the publication of a second book about the same characters, has died at the age of 89. A statement from Tonja Carter, Lee's attorney in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, said Lee had "passed away early this morning in her sleep" and that the death was unexpected. For decades it had appeared that Lee's sole literary output would be "To Kill a Mockingbird" and the July 2015 publication of "Go Set a Watchman" was a surprising and somewhat controversial literary event. In the first book, Atticus Finch was the adored father of the young narrator Scout and a lawyer who nobly but unsuccessfully defended a black man unjustly accused of raping a white woman. But in "Watchman," an older Atticus had racial views that left the grown-up Scout greatly disillusioned. But what is disillusioning right now is that idiots like Donald Trump and Justin Bieber are still alive while all the wrong people are dying.