The Magic Of Harry Potter

J.K. Rowling's wizardry turned on a new generation to that old technology, the wondrous printed word

Three and a half years ago, no one on earth had heard of Harry Potter except J.K. Rowling, the writer who dreamed him up, and the publishers' readers who had rejected the manuscript of her first book featuring the bespectacled boy wizard. And now? Four Harry Potter novels later, translations into 42 languages later, 76 million copies sold worldwide later? Strange, strange things are happening wherever on Earth the young fictional hero and his friends can be found.

--In Germany, Eberhard Barmann, president of the Berlin magicians' club Zauberfreunde, reports that "more and more grandparents and parents are calling me because...

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