Mass-market 'To Kill a Mockingbird' edition to end in April

Schools soon could have a tougher time getting Harper Lee's classic To Kill a Mockingbird in the hands of their students.

According to a report in the New Republic confirmed by The New York Times, publisher Hachette Book Group is discontinuing a cost-effective mass-market edition of the book in late April because of a decision made by the late author's estate. Lee died at the age of 89 last month in her hometown of Monroeville, Ala.

In an email sent to booksellers around the country March 4, the license for the mass-market edition was not renewed due to "the wishes of the author," and Hachette can't sell the edition after April 25.

“The disappearance of the iconic mass-market edition is very disappointing to us, especially as we understand this could force a difficult situation for schools and teachers with tight budgets who cannot afford the larger, higher-priced paperback edition that will remain in the market," a Hachette representative wrote in the email.

Appreciation: Why Harper Lee's 'Mockingbird' will endure

A winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Mockingbird has been in print ever since its first publication in 1960 and sold more than 30 million copies in English. The mass-market edition has an $8.99 price tag — nearly half that of the trade paperback edition put out by Lee's last publisher HarperCollins — and schools often get a discount on buying the mass-market books in bulk for their classes.

One piece of good news: Lee's estate could relicense the rights to the mass-market edition, and in that case it may go to HarperCollins, which released Lee's Mockingbird follow-up Go Set a Watchman last July.