harry potter... fans and how were great

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As of 2008, Harry Potter books have sold over 400 million copies and have been translated into 67 languages.i

A picture of Gandalf the Grey (from The Lord of the Rings) can be seen in the collection of great wizards in Professor Dumbledore’s study in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.f

Author J. K. Rowling recently revealed that Dumbledore is gay and he had a crush on the wizard Grindelwald, whom he later defeated in a wizard duel.a

As every Potter fan knows, Dementors are deadly, magical, wraith-like creatures. Rowling revealed that they represent depression and that they were based on her own experience with the disease. The remedy to lighten the effects of a Dementor is chocolate.e

Rowling is the first person to become a billionaire (U.S. dollars) by writing books.i

In 2007, Rowling was runner up for Timemagazine’s Person of the Year.i

The death of Rowling’s mother from multiple sclerosis significantly influenced her writing, and death is a major theme throughout the Potter series.j

The actress who played Moaning Myrtle is actually 37 years old and is the oldest actress to portray a Hogwarts student.g

Rowling discovered “witchy” sounding names such as toadflax, goutwort, grommel, and others in Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, a famous book of herbal lore from the 1600s.h

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released on July 21, 2007, and sold 11 million copies on the first day of its release, breaking Rowling’s earlier records for the fastest selling book of all time.a

Rowling said that if she were to be a teacher at Hogwarts, she would teach Charms. If she had a job in the wizarding world, she would write spell books.c

Harry Potter’s pet snowy owl, Hedwig, shares her name with two famous saints. One is Saint Hedwig of Andechs (1174-1243), a former duchess noted for her benevolence and compassionate nature. The other is Saint Hedwig, Queen of Poland (1373-1399). The death of Hedwig in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows represents Harry’s loss of innocence and coming of age.b

Owls are the primary means of communication between wizards in Harry’s world. However, in many parts of the world, owls are considered bad luck and harbingers of death.b

In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, dragon blood is revealed to be an effective oven cleaner.g

Rowling’s books were the first children’s books included on the New York Bestseller list since E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web in 1952.i

When Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was released in Great Britain, the publisher asked stores not to sell the book until schools were closed for the day to prevent truancy.e

Several publishers rejected the first Harry Potter manuscript saying it was too long and literary, but Bloomsbury Publisher finally accepted it in 1996. The book’s publisher suggested Rowling use the name “J. K.” rather than her real name “Joanne Rowling” to appeal to male readers. She took the “K” from her grandmother’s name Kathleen, but neither "Kathleen" nor "K" is part of her legal name.c

Rowling’s series has stimulated children to read and has concomitantly boosted the sales of other children’s literature, such as C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia series and Lloyd Alexander’s The Black Cauldron series.i

A few scholars have suggested that the Harry Potter series is sexist because the three most powerful figures are male, females use their power in ways that make them less appealing than the males, and Hermione is less powerful and less poised than the boys. Other scholars say those claims are unfounded.e