Harper Lee, the reclusive author of To Kill a Mockingbird, was not pressured into publishing a second novel, investigators have concluded.
The Alabama securities commission opened its investigation after receiving a complaint of “elder abuse” involving the writer, 88. The complaint was linked to the publication of Go Set a Watchman, which goes on sale in July.
“We made a determination that Ms Lee, based on our interview with her, was aware that her book was going to be published,” said Joseph Borg, who heads the commission. “She wanted it to be published. She made it quite clear she did.”
The news that Lee will release the manuscript she set aside decades ago shocked the literary world last month. The author, who suffered a stroke in 2007 and is very hard of hearing and nearly blind, had previously said that she would not publish again. Last year her sister Alice, who looked after her business affairs, died at the age of 103.
Her death prompted concerns that Lee was being manipulated. However, a person who sees her regularly said that Lee remained lucid and was capable of agreeing to a book deal. The official investigation, which was the result of an anonymous tip-off, appears to have reached the same conclusion.
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The manuscript of Go Set a Watchman, which is effectively an early draft of To Kill a Mockingbird that was rejected by an editor, was unearthed by Tonja Carter, Lee’s lawyer.
Ms Carter negotiated a book deal with the publisher HarperCollins, which insists that Lee is healthy. It is owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times.
Ms Carter did not respond to a request for comment. She released a statement last month saying that Lee “is alive and kicking and happy as hell”.