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Tuesday, April 06, 1999 By Karen MacPherson, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
The life of author J.K. Rowling is a fairy tale that rivals the fantasy of her delightful best-selling children's novel, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, $16.95).
In 1990, Rowling was a single mother subsisting on welfare in Edinburgh, Scotland, as she struggled to write the first chapters of "Harry Potter," the story of a mistreated orphan whose life changes overnight when he enters the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and learns that he is a legend in the world of magic.
Rowling recalls writing much of her book on scraps of paper late at night in a cold, damp apartment. During the day, Rowling wrote in cafes, where she could keep herself warm and let her daughter nap in her stroller. After some months of this, Rowling was fortunate enough to secure a state grant but still didn't have enough money to make a photocopy of her final typed manuscript. Instead, she typed a second copy.
Seven years and several rejections later, a British publisher, Bloomsbury, published the book. The reaction was phenomenal: "Harry Potter" became one of the best-selling children's books of all time in Britain, captured several top literary prizes and won the rare accolade - for a children's book - of intense adult adulation. Bloomsbury even issued a separate edition with a more adult-looking jacket to capitalize on the book's unusual "crossover" effect.
"Harry Potter" has also become a literary sensation here. So far, the book has spent nearly 15 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. Rowling's also got a six-figure contract from Warner Brothers for a "Harry Potter" film.
Interest here is so intense for the second book in the seven-book series, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," that Scholastic has moved up the American publishing date from September to June (it's already out in Britain). The third book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" will be published here in October.
Just what is it about "Harry Potter" that inspires such affection among both adults and children? First, it is an extremely well-written novel, a real page-turner with engaging characters and a fast-moving plot laced with humor. Harry himself is the kind of boy most children would like to befriend, someone who remains level-headed and kind-hearted despite the early loss of his parents and an atrocious childhood spent with his uncle, aunt and spoiled cousin, Dudley.
"Harry Potter" also is a delightful fantasy, a book where readers enter into another world with its own rules, history and culture. With her debut novel, Rowling joins the ranks of such celebrated authors as E. Nesbit, Edward Eager, Roald Dahl and others who wrote books in which good overcomes evil, an outcast overcomes society's rejection and children show adults the way.
In fact, underneath Harry's magical world and Rowling's wonderful writing, the basic structure of "Harry Potter" is highly reminiscent of other well-loved children's fantasy novels. What distinguishes Rowling from so many other children's authors writing today, however, is how she takes this well-worn formula of the fantasy novel and infuses it with fresh energy to craft a book that defies the efforts of any reader to put it down.
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