Much has been written about the creation of the Harry Potter series over the past 20 years, but no book may organize its development as well as J.K. Rowling: A Bibliography.
The new book detailing the author’s published worked from 1997 – 2013 offers an exhaustive look at the creation of each of the seven Harry Potter books, The Casual Vacancy, and The Cuckoo’s Calling through interviews, never-before-released letters, and more.
J.K. Rowling: A Bibiography also offers great detail about every edition of the U.S. and U.K. versions of the aforementioned books (and there are many) so that collectors and fans alike can identify which editions they have.
Rowling herself notes at the beginning of the bibliography that she is “in awe of the level of detail and amount of time Philip Arrington has dedicated to this slavishly thorough and somewhat mind-boggling bibliography.”
Bloomsbury’s synopsis notes that this is “the first source on Rowling consulted by textual scholars, book dealers and collectors, auction houses, critics and researchers. The aim of the book is to record fact and dispel rumour on the fascinating publishing history of the Harry Potter series.”
A report today from The Guardian shares other interesting tidbits from within the bibliography, like rejected titles for Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter and the Death Eaters, Harry Potter and the Fire Goblet, and Harry Potter and the Three Champions) and this letter from Rowling to her editor Emma Matthewson while working on Prisoner of Azkaban:
“Finally! I’ve read this book so much I’m sick of it, I never read either of the others over and over again when editing them, but I really had to this time. If you think it needs more work, I’m willing and able, but I do think this draft represents an improvement on the first; the dementors are much more of a presence this time round, I think.”
In another letter from November 1998, Rowling writes candidly about the stress behind writing:
“An annoying little speech bubble has just popped onto my screen saying ‘looks like you’re writing a letter. Would you like some help?’ This laptop is too clever for its own good… I am so sick of re-reading this one that I’ll be hard put to smile when it comes to doing public readings from it. But perhaps the feeling will have worn off by next summer…”
The bibliography has an extensive level of behind-the-scenes details, including corrections made to the Potter books for reprints. We found this section in a sample released on Google Books which shows the changes made to Philosopher’s Stone in updated editions:
An eBook version of J.K. Rowling: A Bibliography is now available from Amazon for $80. A physical copy will be published in April and cost $120. The latter format seems like it would be the preferred way to consume this type of book.
Rowling fans have two other books to look forward to this year from the author: Very Good Lives (an illustrated version of her 2008 Harvard commencement speech) and, presumably, the third book in her Cormoran Strike series.
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