article_snippet: Some in Lee's hometown of Monroeville questioned whether the 88-year-old To Kill A Mockingbird author was capable of consenting to the second novel's publication.
article_snippet: After publisher HaperCollins announced a second book - Go Set A Watchman, which was written before To Kill A Mockingbird but is set 20 years afterward - a longtime friend came forward claiming Lee is mostly deaf, blind and in poor health.
article_snippet: Controversy over the mental state of author Harper Lee - which has raged since it was announced last month Publisher HaperCollins would publish a second book more than half-a-century after To Kill A
article_snippet: Accounts of Lee's mental and physical state have been contradictory over the last few years, but intensified recently after HarperCollins announced HarperCollins second book, .
article_snippet: A friend of Lee, Wayne Flynt, said Lee visited HarperCollins recently and found HarperCollins mentally cogent.
article_snippet: But Lee agreed HarperCollins had some health issues, telling Lee '
article_snippet: Lee wrote her second book,
highlights_snippet: Publisher HaperCollins announced new book by Lee, 88, last month .
  