Today we celebrate yet another milestone in the Harry Potter fan community. The events of Harry’s second year at Hogwarts took place 20 years ago today. Over on Twitter we relived a bit of that magic by sharing events as they unfolded in the Chamber of Secrets ranging from Professor McGonagall’s declaration of all students to return to the house dormitories, to Hagrid returning from his stint in Azkaban.
Charity / J.K. Rowling / News / PS/SS
J.K. Rowling’s official site has just been updated with a look inside the annotated first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone auctioned off just days ago at Sotheby. Check out this image of Snape drawn by the creator of the series herself!
Book / Fandom / J.K. Rowling / News
A first edition print of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone that had 43 pages covered with illustrations from author J.K. Rowling sold at Sotheby’s for 150,000 GBP (or close to $300,000 USD). It was a bidding war between two buyers as the auction raised a total of 439,200 GBP for English PEN, which campaigns for freedom of expression.
J.K. Rowling / News / PS/SS
What a week for Harry Potter fans! After MuggleNet posted about J.K. Rowling’s handwritten spreadsheet, we now have yet more handwritten material from J.K. Rowling, this time in the form of annotations in a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, as featured in The Guardian.
J.K. Rowling / News / OOTP
What goes on inside the mind of J.K. Rowling? It is a question that plagues every Harry Potter fan on a regular basis, but is very seldom answered. In an article from Flavorwire, nine widely known authors share bits of their early work on what would become literary classics. One author, of course, is J.K. Rowling, whose original website featured this some years ago.
On May 21, Sotheby’s is partnering with English PEN to auction off 50 contemporary first edition novels, all annotated by their authors. Included among these books is a rare first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Book / Book Series / News / Scholastic
As previously reported, Scholastic has brought on artist Kazu Kibuishi to design new covers for the 15th anniversary collection of the Potter series to be released over this year. The new covers can be bought as individual books or as a boxed set, which is now avaliable to pre-order before the release at the end of August.
Book / Book Series / Fandom / HP Film Series / Movie / News
The Harry Potter series may have concluded nearly six years ago, but people around the world, of all ages, are still experiencing Harry’s world for the first time today. Two stories, from 20SomethingReads and Under the Gun Review, tell of adults’ reactions to the Potter books and films, respectively.
Both parents and children chose Harry Potter as their favorite children’s book character in a survey conducted in honor of International Children’s Book Day. J.K. Rowling also did well in the poll, though she was beaten out for favorite author by Roald Dahl.
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