Printing Error Mars Harper Lee Sequel

LONDON—July 20, 2015—Many longtime fans of the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" were no doubt broken hearted at the news that Atticus Finch—the noble and just lawyer who defends an African-American man in a rape trial involving a white woman—would be cast as a racist in the long-awaited followup, "Go Set a Watchman."

For many readers in the United Kingdom, that frustration was likely amplified by a printing error that left text missing from six different pages, the UK's Daily Mail reported. Amazon—which provided readers with many of the misprinted tomes—reacted quickly by issuing an apology, promising corrected copies free of charge, and even emailing the missing text to customers so that they don't have to wait for their replacement books.

The emailed text came complete with spoiler alerts, telling readers not to open it before reaching page 252, the first affected page. Readers were able to scroll down to find the nine total lines that were omitted in the print run, the newspaper said.

The missing lines actually come during the height of an argument between Atticus and his daughter, Jean Louise (a.k.a. Scout as a child) regarding his attitude toward a changing society. The sequel reveals that Atticus, once viewed as a bastion of human kindness and dignity for all races, had attended a Ku Klux Klan rally. The book is set 20 years after the events of "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Amazon did not indicate whether the printing error was a gaffe relegated to UK copies.