'To Kill a Mockingbird' Is Going Digital After Author Changes Tune

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Author Harper Lee smiles during a ceremony honoring the four new members of the Alabama Academy of Honor, Monday, Aug. 20, 2007, in at the Capitol in Montgomery, Ala.

Image: Rob Carr/Associated Press

By Seth Fiegerman2014-04-28 14:28:04 UTC

Welcome to the digital world, Boo Radley.

To Kill a Mockingbird, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a moral lawyer who defends a black man in a racially divided town in the South, is finally going digital. The classic story is scheduled to be released as an e-book and digital audiobook on July 8, more than half a century after it was first published in print.

See also: 20 'Bookmarks' To Show Off Your Literary Love

Harper Lee, the reclusive 88-year-old author behind the book, put out a statement through her publisher, HarperCollins, confirming the deal.

"I'm still old-fashioned. I love dusty old books and libraries," Lee said, according to the Associated Press. "I am amazed and humbled that 'Mockingbird' has survived this long. This is 'Mockingbird' for a new generation."

The decision to embrace digital appears to represent a shift in thinking for Lee, who wrote a piece for O Magazine in 2006 about how she learned to read.

"Can you imagine curling up in bed to read a computer? Weeping for Anna Karenina and being terrified by Hannibal Lecter, entering the heart of darkness with Mistah Kurtz, having Holden Caulfield ring you up," she wrote at the time. "Some things should happen on soft pages, not cold metal."

Lee had sued a literary agent last year for allegedly tricking her into signing over the copyright of her celebrated and only book. The lawsuit was settled a few months later.

To Kill a Mockingbird had been one of the more notable titles not yet available for digital readers. Other examples include The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who died this month.

At least now readers will be able to choose how to curl up with To Kill a Mockingbird — on soft pages or cold metal.

Topics: books, Business, ebooks, Media