Actor Gregory Peck and novelist Harper Lee in 1962, on the set of the Universal Pictures release To Kill A Mockingbird, in which Peck plays Atticus Finch. Bettmann/Corbis hide caption

Pulitzer Prize winner and To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee smiles before receiving the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption

A Lane cake is a layered sponge cake filled with a rich mixture of egg yolks, butter, sugar, raisins and whiskey and topped with boiled icing. Nadia Chaudhury for NPR hide caption

Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee. Courtesy of HarperCollins hide caption

Every spring, local residents have staged a play based on To Kill a Mockingbird in this courthouse in Monroeville, Ala. Debbie Elliott/NPR hide caption

Harper Lee, seen here receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, actually wrote Go Set a Watchman first. But she set it aside when her editor suggested focusing on Scout's flashbacks instead — and she did, in what became To Kill a Mockingbird. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption

To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee smiles before receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2007. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption

Author James Patterson, pictured in 2011 in New York City, says independent bookstores are "vital to our future as a country." Janette Pellegrini/Getty Images for Disney Publishing hide caption

Harper Lee smiles before receiving the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, D.C. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption