I haven’t decided if the editorial, “Making a mockery of a literary hero,” (July 14), was serious or tongue-in-cheek. Either way, I am alternately amused and puzzled at the shock, disappointment and amazement that in Harper Lee’s new/old novel, “Go Set a Watchman,” Atticus Finch is apparently a racist and segregationist and not the paragon of racial and social justice that he was in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

While I love “To Kill a Mockingbird,” I think I read it when I was 12 or 13. Atticus is a fictional character. While many would like him to be real, he isn’t and a writer of fiction can have their character do whatever he or she likes. Can we evaluate, “Go Set a Watchman,” on its literary merits?

By the way, I was cleaning the basement and discovered an old envelope containing a typewritten manuscript of a sequel of Robert McClosky’s beloved book, “Make Way for Ducklings.” In the unpublished sequel, Mr. and Mrs. Mallard can’t take care of their eight ducklings and sell them to the restaurant at the Boston Park Plaza, after which they fly to Florida to live out their last duck days. Thank goodness that book will never see the light of day. I burned it.

Frank T. Francisconi Jr.

New London