Letters: Oct. 11, 1999

WILD ABOUT HARRY

It was a delight to see TIME's cover bearing a portrait of fantasy fiction's latest "wiz" kid, Harry Potter [BOOKS, Sept. 20]. As an author, I have despaired of the future of both writing and reading, given the plummeting literary standards and increasing indifference to learning in our era. In so dark an hour, it is nothing short of magical that what J.R.R. Tolkien called the "Tree of Tales" could put forth a green and growing shoot like the Harry books--a branch that can serve as a broomstick to bear us "lands away" and, better still, worlds within....

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