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Harper Lee’s Estate Kills Mass-Market Edition of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

One of the most-read books in high schools throughout the country will soon be undergoing a major change. After the death its author, Harper Lee, the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” will cease publication in its “mass-market edition form”—a decision that Lee’s estate made.

This decision is significant because mass-market editions of books are typically much cheaper than their traditional paperback counterparts. For instance, one publisher sells a mass-market edition for $8.99, while a rival publisher, HarperCollins, sells the paperback for $14.99 and $16.99. And one report estimates that two-thirds of the approximately 30 million copies of "To Kill a Mockingbird" sold since its publication have been mass-market editions.

The decision is also significant because of how widely the books are used and taught in American middle schools and high schools—74 percent of such schools by one count. In 1988, the National Council of Teachers of English reported that “Only ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ ‘Macbeth,’ and ‘Huckleberry Finn’ were assigned more often.” The decision to stop printing the mass-market edition is expected to raise costs substantially for these schools.

Of course, the estate’s "To Kill a Mockingbird" decision parallels a move away from mass-market editions within the publishing industry. Other classics like “The Great Gatsby” and “The Grapes of Wrath” already no longer have mass-market editions available in the United States. The change also highlights how extensions in copyright protection throughout the decades impact the ways in which important works are licensed and even withheld.

When Lee published “To Kill a Mockingbird” in 1960, copyright protection extended only 56 years, meaning the novel would have entered the public domain this year. The Copyright Act of 1976 and the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 extended that protection period, and under current law, Lee’s novel will not reach the public domain until 2056.

Sources: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160311/23111933877/harper-lees-estates-first-order-business-kill-off-cheap-version-to-kill-mockingbird.shtml https://newrepublic.com/article/131400/mass-market-edition-kill-mockingbird-dead

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