Harry Potter prequel
The Harry Potter prequel is a short story written by JK Rowling in 2008 with a length of 797 words, which is a prequel to the seven novels about the magician Harry Potter . It was auctioned on June 11, 2008 for a good cause. Hira Digpal , who lives in Japan, bought the text for the equivalent of around 31,600 euros. The auction met with wide media coverage.
background
Although JK Rowling had made it clear several times that she would not write a prequel to Harry Potter , she announced on May 28, 2008 that she would write one for the English PEN authors' association and the Dyslexia Society . She wrote that she was still not working on a lengthy prequel and felt that it was just the best way to raise money for two laudable charities. However, she had fun writing the short story. She wrote the text on a single card.
With the seven novels, the prequel is the only story by JK Rowling that is part of the Harry Potter canon . It is therefore viewed by fans as special and, due to its appearance after the series of novels has been completed, it is often discussed and interpreted.
auction
On June 11, 2008, the story was featured at the What's Your Story? Charity auction hosted by Waterstones . , for which thirteen well-known authors wrote texts, will be auctioned. Well-known writers in addition to Rowling were Doris Lessing , Margaret Atwood , Tom Stoppard , Irvine Welsh , Sebastian Faulks , Axel Scheffler , Lauren Child , Nick Hornby , Neil Gaiman , Lisa Appignanesi , Richard Ford and Michael Rosen . All stories had to be written on DIN A5 sized cards.
All proceeds went to English PEN and Dyslexia Action . The Harry Potter prequel was sold for £ 25,000 to Hira Digpal , president of Tokyo-based investment banking advisory firm Red-33 . All the texts together brought in £ 47,150 (approx. 59,550 euros). The auction took place in Waterstone's Flagshop bookstore in Piccadilly Circus , the largest bookstore in Europe.
In August 2008, all texts were published as a facsimile in a book, the proceeds of which also went to charities. The Harry Potter story was made available online on June 14th.
action
The short story is about the wizard friends James Potter ( Harry Potter's father) and Sirius Black ( Harry Potter's godfather) and takes place three years before Harry was born, around 1977.
Two Muggle police officers, Fisher and Anderson, chase James and Sirius on his enchanted motorcycle. In a dead end they drive her into a corner and confront her for violating the traffic rules. Just as James and Sirius reveal their names to the police officers, three men fly into the alley on flying brooms , who also seem to have chased the two wizards. James and Sirius raise the police car with their wands; the three men crash into it and are immediately put out of action. The shocked cops fall and stare at the two wizards; They say thank you jokingly, start their motorcycle and immediately take off into the night sky.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Anita Singh: Harry Potter prequel sets short story sales record . In: Telegraph.co.uk . ( telegraph.co.uk [accessed August 20, 2017]).
- ↑ Potter 'prequel' sold at auction on bbc .co.uk
- ↑ a b Rowling's official statement on her website ( memento from June 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ The full text on crushable.com
Web links
- Full text (on OpenCulture). (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on July 1, 2020 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )
- Full text (handwriting, facsimile) on MuggleNet. Retrieved July 1, 2020 .
- Complete text (transcribed, not entirely error-free) on Freeshell. Retrieved July 9, 2020 .
- Entry in the English-language Harry Potter Wiki