Harper Lee's second novel was published when she was frail and her lawyer controlled her affairs; her will stayed sealed until The New York Times sued

Lee published one novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, in 1960^†. In 2015 HarperCollins published Go Set a Watchman, an earlier manuscript. Lee had suffered a stroke and had several mental and physical infirmities, and critics questioned whether she wanted it published. An Alabama agency investigated and ruled she was not a victim of elder abuse or financial fraud. Her lawyer, Tonja Carter, was her personal representative. After Lee died, Carter's lawyers asked to keep the will private, and Lee's relatives agreed; a judge sealed it in 2016. The New York Times sued to open it. The estate withdrew its opposition, and the will was unsealed on 26 February 2019. It had been signed eight days before her death. It sent most of her assets, including her literary properties, into a trust she had formed in 2011, with Carter as one of two trustees. Carter was named executor. The will did not show how the trust divides her estate, because the trust document itself was not filed in court. Its terms remain private in 2026^†.