The monumental, worldwide, unique Harry Potter phenomenon has its origins in one of the oldest forms of mass entertainment-a book. It was the popularity of the book that led to the various marketing techniques like Harry Potter movies, screen savers, posters, trading cards, toys, games, lunch boxes etc. and not vice versa. The scrawny, black-haired bespectacled boy wizard has won the hearts of millions of people of all ages and dispositions-from the young to the old; from the simple and the peace-loving to prisoners suspected of terrorism.
What is so appealing about Harry? What are factors responsible for the popularity of these books? The appeal of Potter is known only to the readers. A lot of articles have been written and a lot of discussions have been held all over the world regarding the popularity of Harry Potter. The child readers have grown with Harry, their own growth being reflected in each year Harry spends in Hogwarts and grows. Thus, they have identified with their beloved boy wizard hero. Adult readers have relived their own long lost childhood through the enticing tales of Harry, his friends and their thrilling adventures.
Harry's popularity has created two sharply divided groups, which have opposing schools of thought about Harry. One school of thought strongly advocates the banning of the Potter books on grounds that each page supports the devil and his doings and is opposed to Christianity and also that the Potter books have the capacity to lure innocent children into the dark, forbidden territories of the occult. The fact that Harry Potter features on every annual list of most-banned books doesn't upset the author, JK Rowling. On the contrary, she considers it an honour as it puts her in the list of great writers like Harper Lee, Mark Twain, J.D Salinger, William Golding, John Steinbeck and other writers she reveres. The other school of thought is of the opinion that Harry Potter not only inculcates the habit of reading among a youthful generation, which-specially boys-finds more pleasure in video games and movies, but also teaches timeless positive values such as friendship, love, truth, honesty, courage, tolerance and self-reliance.
The Origin of Harry Potter
JK Rowling's website reveals the fact that the idea for Harry Potter “simply fell into her head” as she was traveling on her own from Manchester to London on a crowded train. Greatly excited about the idea, she thought about it for four delayed train hours and started writing “The Philosopher's Stone” that very evening. It took her five years to write the first book, though at that time, she was also planning and writing parts of the six sequels. She had always conceived it as a seven-book series because she decided it would take seven years from the ages of 11-17, inclusive, to train as a wizard, and each of the books would deal with a year of Harry's life at Hogwarts. The theme of Harry Potter is the age old combat between Good and Evil, resulting in the ultimate triumph of the Good. The writer has warned, right from the beginning that as her books would deal with evil in all its ugly aspects there would be many casualties and that each book would be darker than the previous one. There is absolutely no doubt that the Harry Potter books are the result of intensive, meticulous research into the occult. Most of the intriguing names of places and characters that delight readers so much come from Rowling's imagination and some of them are products of her research.
Harry Potter Reaches the Heights of Success
As a single mother living in poverty and writing most of her first Potter novel in cafes, JK Rowling did not even dream that her hero would be a source of such great wealth. First, the Scottish Arts Council gave her a grant to finish the book. The book was rejected by a series of publishers, including Penguin and Harper Collins. It was Bloomsbury who finally accepted it. Bloomsbury Chairman, Nigel Newton, gave a chapter of the manuscript of “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,” to Alice, his then 8-year-old daughter. When she kept pestering him for more, he realized that he was on to a winner and decided to take the crucial step of publishing the first Harry Potter novel.
After its sale to Bloomsbury and Scholastic Books, Harry Potter zoomed to the zenith of success. The novel won the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year and the Smarties Prize, and attracted reviews from either side of the Atlantic. Book rights were sold to several European countries.
A new Harry Potter novel appeared every year for the next three years. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban (1999), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003)-all hit the shelves of bookstores all over the world and sold like hot cakes. In 2005, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released. On the first day, 6.9 million copies were sold in the United States alone, that is, about 80 copies per second. The books have been translated into more than 60 languages and more than 300 million copies have been sold around the world
