Harry Potter's new book of secrets
Contain yourself: There's a new Harry Potter book. Or, to be precise, a new Harry Potter bibliography.
"J.K. Rowling: A Bibliography 1997-2013" clocks in at 544 pages, and while it's no "Chamber of Secrets," it does contain some juicy details about Rowling's writing process.
Philip Errington, who is an author and director for children's books at Sotheby's, spent five years researching Rowling for the book, The Guardian reports. He dug through the archives of Bloomsbury and interviewed the publishing house's staff who worked with Rowling on the series.
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A few magical tidbits from the new book:
• When Harry Potter first landed on The New York Times bestseller list, the paper described Potter as "a Scottish boy." The British weren't very happy about that slip.
• "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" nearly wore Rowling out. The bibliography includes letters between Rowling and her editor in which she declares, "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."
• "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was almost "Harry Potter and the Death Eaters" or "Harry Potter and the Three Champions." Not quite as catchy.
• By the time Rowling finished writing the fifth book, the world was deep in the throes of Potter-mania. With such a rabid fan following, Bloomsbury feared for the safety of the manuscript. Rowling's agent and a Bloomsbury executive decided to meet in secret in an out-of-the-way pub to exchange the manuscript, which was hidden in a plastic bag.
"By this stage the series was so enormous that I was almost frightened to be in physical possession of it," said the executive. When he finally got it home, he hid it under his bed.