Short fiction and essays by 'To Kill a Mockingbird' author Harper Lee to be published in October

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NEW YORK (AP) — Essays and early short stories by “To Kill a Mockingbird” author Harper Lee will be published this fall.

"The Land of Sweet Forever" compiles short fiction Lee wrote in the years before the 1960 release of her classic novel and includes essays completed between 1961 and 2006. Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, will release the book Oct. 21. “The Land of Sweet Forever” will include an introduction by Lee's authorized biographer, Casey Cep.

“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," the late author's nephew, Dr. Edwin Conner, said in a statement Tuesday.

"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,” he said.

Lee, who died in 2016 at age 89, published no new, full-length books after “To Kill a Mockingbird.” In 2015, she approved the release of “Go Set a Watchman,” an early draft of “Mockingbird.”