More information on earliest known video

AQ reader Julia Crimmins has been researching the origins of the video from Dissendium we told you about a little more than an month ago. She has determined that it's source is a video called "The Magical World Of J K Rowling - Author Of Harry Potter" published in the U.S. in 2000. Furthermore, it contains additional video of Jo (wearing the same outfit) signing the American edition of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, so the video excerpt would seem to date to October 1999 when she was touring the U.S. Solid sleuthing, Julia!

Later edit: I forgot to mention that you can also read a transcript of the video excerpt.

Thief!

And on a disgusted note, it has come to our attention that someone is selling a guide to book 7 that steals original content from the Harry Potter Lexicon, Jo's website and Accio Quote (our summaries), and then calls our work "bonuses" in order to charge you extra. No, we're not speaking of Mugglenet's book. They asked.

Nine new articles added

Nine new articles added, but alas, no new canon. Some of the news ones I'm adding aren't interviews at all, such as Time Magazine's review of the first movie, Judy Blume's editorial, and Arthur A. Levine's explanation of how he came to buy Rowling's first book. I found them interesting, and I hope you do too!



1999: Time | Time | NYT | NYT
2000: Time | Time
2001: Time | Dish
2003: Time

New format for year indexes

Last year when we combined Madam Scoop's Index to J.K. Rowling Interviews and the Quick Quotes Quill I wasn't quite satisfied with the way the "by year" pages functioned.

On one hand, adding Madam Scoop's summaries to the list of citations made it easy to see what articles had canon-level information; but on the other hand, the pages were harder to use because they were so cluttered. Well, I think I found something I'm happy with -- the "by year" pages are now in chart form (samples 1997 - 2001 - 2005). Well most of them! The really big ones (1999 and 2000) aren't converted yet. Let me know what you think.

Six New Articles added to Accio Quote

I have added six new articles to our archive. Enjoy!

• "Boy wizard frees trapped mother," Sunday Times (London), December 6, 1998
  [Excerpt] Potter was drawn as a bespectacled hero because Rowling had worn thick glasses as a child and had been frustrated that spectacle-wearers were always the swots but never the heroes. The qualities that Rowling admires in Harry are also the ones that she has probably had to develop herself.
  
• "Wizard with Words," Telegraph Magazine (London), July 3, 1999
  [Excerpt] She has a large working occult library and it's hard to catch her out on her magic. She was pleased to be quizzed by a boy on the difference between charms and transfiguration.
• "Just Wild About Harry," The Scotsman (Edinburgh), July 8, 1999
  [Excerpt] Adele Geras: ... when you embark on a saga like this you commit yourself, and that's part of the fun. You're one of the ones in the know: a Harry Potter fan. You can swap words and catchphrases which mere mortals won't recognise. You can make allusions that go over the heads of the ignorant.
• "HP's novel encounter," The Times (London), June 27, 2000
  [Excerpt] "To Bryony - who is the most important person I've ever met in a signing queue & the first person ever to see merit in Harry Potter. With huge thanks. J.K.Rowling." The "huge" has been underlined four times, signifying the contribution that Evens has made to this particular phenomenon. For it is she who, while working at the Christopher Little Literary Agency as office manager, opened the post one morning in 1996 to find her attention drawn to a black folder.
• "Mother of all Muggles," The Irish Times, July 13, 2000
  [Excerpt] No one would ever pick Rowling out as the creator of these books. She is not sufficiently weird or offbeat. She doesn't even have bright purple socks.
  
• "Media: Harry Potter and the Horrible Hackette; Which Interviewer Inspired the Venomous Portrait in J.K. Rowling's Latest Bestseller? Severin Carrell Rounds up the Likely Suspects," The Independent (London), September 5, 2000
  Jo has said that the character Rita Skeeter was written long before she had to deal with unscrupulous reporters, but this writer tries to guess anyway.

Since February I have added 22 new items to the archive. Woo hoo!

Two short interviews/statements from 2006 added

I just uploaded two short interviews we missed from 2006: Jo's response when Lord Voldemort was voted "Best Villain" in a contest, and the ITV show on Robbie Coltrane where Jo talks briefly about the role of Hagrid.

The most interesting comment refers to Voldemort. Rowling says that in book 7 Voldemort will finally get the "legroom" he has been "aching" for. Thank you to Julia Crimmins for the reminder.

Audio from 2002 about 2nd movie available again

The IGN interview audio from 2002 is now safely archived here at AQ, thanks to Philip Frey and "xray" who wrote to tell me that it had surfaced again. Thanks to everyone who wrote!

Update: transcript now available too, thanks to xray. Nice job!

Fan challenge: Can you find these?

With so many articles and transcripts of J.K. Rowling interviews reappearing, I thought I would post a list of the ones we're looking for. If you have any of these, please email me: accioquote@gmail.com.

• Blue Peter TV Show appearance, March 3, 1997 Jo has mentioned this as her first TV appearance but I can find no record of it except for the listing in the IMDB.
• Diane Rehm show audio from October 20, 1999 (apparently re-broadcast on 12/24/1999). I have written them to request a copy since they removed it from their archives and they said they couldn't do that. It had been here.
• CBC "This Morning, Sunday Edition" audio interview from October 2000. I have searched their site and the web and cannot find it. It had been here. Either the audio or a transcript would be great.
  
• Blue Peter from March 12, 2001. We only have a partial transcript.
• Owen Jones interview from July 17, 2005 -- we only have partial transcripts. We found this one! Big thank you to Joanne Hill!

1998 Rowling interview reveals fresh canon

Thanks to Jacob Kaufman, we have a whopping total of 9 new articles from 1998. While they are all interesting to read, one is especially rich with new canon! "Face to Face with J K Rowling: Casting a spell over young minds," from The Herald, December 7, 1998 contains the following statements:

• JKR: "To invent this wizard world, I've learned a ridiculous amount about alchemy. Perhaps much of it I'll never use in the books, but I have to know in detail what magic can and cannot do in order to set the parameters and establish the stories' internal logic."
• JKR: "the books do explore the misuse of power, and there's an attempt to make some sense of death"
• JKR: "it's indecent the amount of time I spend thinking up wizarding ways to subvert arrogant Muggles."
• Difference between charms and transfiguration? JKR: "With a charm you add properties to something. With a transfiguration you change its nature completely; the molecular structure alters..."

2 New interviews added

Two new interviews have been added, both from 2000. An AOL Live chat from May (thanks Analía!) and the long lost Rosie O'Donnell interview from October (thanks Laurel!).

I couldn't find any new canon, but they are nice to read anyway!

Our official translation affiliates

I just uploaded a list of our translation affiliates to make it a bit easier for our readers to find the interviews in their native language. Please note that the sites are at different stages of completeness. For example, Potterish was just added so it may take a while for translations to be posted.

Here they are...
Dutch (Nederlands): De Uilenvleugel (fantaciteerveer)
French (Français): Le repaire de Rowling
Portuguese: Potterish
Spanish (Castellano): El Diccionario de los Magos (referencias)

Please remember to thank them for all the work that goes into a good translation!

If you wish to be an official translation affiliate of Accio Quote! Please write Lisa at accioquote@gmail.com

The Floo Network to raise money for Book Aid International with Deathly Hallows guide

The Floo Network (The Harry Potter Lexicon, The Leaky Cauldron and Accio Quote) has launched "HarryPotterSeven.com," a collection of essays about Book 7 (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) that we hope will raise money for Book Aid International, an organization that works to set up libraries in developing countries.

If you read the excellent "Scribbulus" essays on the Leaky Cauldron you will recognize many of the authors; Steve Vander Ark (Harry Potter Lexicon) and I also contributed sections. Steve summarized "What we know so far" -- as only he could -- and I selected statements Jo has made in interviews about Book 7, made my best guesses about what will be important, and then wrote some commentary that I hope will be helpful.

Check it out: Book | Leaky News article

P.S. The delightful artwork is by Polly Beam

Mugglenet book a NYT "Editor's Choice"

Well, how cool is this? Mugglenet's book What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7? was just made an Editor's Choice by the New York Times Book Review!

Quotage (author is Lee Siegel):

You realize something as you follow these fans through questions of loyalty (just how binding is the “life debt” that one wizard owes to another who saves his life?); of love (is it a lack of sexual tension that makes Harry and Hermione friends?); of self-esteem (“Neville’s early lack of skill may be nothing more than the result of meager self-confidence”). If Rowling’s genius lies in the replete, self-contained world she has created for young people, then to the extent that her readers have entered into this world, they partake of her imaginative genius.

To put it another way, Spartz and company aren’t jumping up and down on YouTube or sending out minute-by-minute dispatches about their state of mind on MySpace. They are traveling out of their own selves into someone else’s imagined universe, where they seem happy, even grateful, to find pieces of their lives without encountering the slightest reference to themselves.

Nice work guys, and congratulations!

And on a more somber note, the Times also reported about the controversy over the Newbery winner A Higher Power of Lucky's use of a medical word for a man's genitalia (I'm not squeamish, I just don't want to get blocked). I thought the book was delightful and powerful.

Lexicon redesign preview

I posted today over on the Harry Potter Lexicon's blog some screen shots of the redesign we've been working on. So far the readers have been kind, even enthusiastic (which is a relief).

Basically this new design is also a reorganization. Instead of dividing the Lexicon into Muggle World and Wizarding World it is organized by the type of resource and how it relates to Potter "canon."

It will also give us much stronger site management tools so that we can react quickly to links that need to be updated.

Post your bouquets or brickbats over on the Lexicon blog.

Six new articles

I added six articles today dating from 1998-2000, however only 1 (the Newsweek) is really an interview.
1998: Publishers Weekly | Autobiography
1999: Publishers Weekly | Publishers Weekly
2000: Sunday Herald | Newsweek

4 interview videos discovered!

Happy Valentines Day! We have a video present for you: I found video recordings for four Rowling interviews, including what is arguably the best ever, the 2001 BBC/A&E production of "Harry Potter and Me!" Links are all up on our list of videos.

Search Accio Quote and the Harry Potter Lexicon from anywhere!

Do you use Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox 2? Then you can now add Accio Quote and the Lexicon to the search box in the upper right hand corner of your internet browser and search them without having to surf to the site first.

Accio Quote!
Firefox: Go to Accio Quote! and the icon will appear in your drop down menu. You can move it up in the list by clicking on "Manage Search Engines."
Internet Explorer: Go to Accio Quote! and choose "Add Search Providers..." from the drop down menu then select Accio Quote.

Harry Potter Lexicon
Firefox: Click here and follow the instructions
Internet Explorer: Go to the Lexicon and choose "Find More Providers..." from the drop down menu and follow the simple instructions.

A new video of JKR, source unknown

Dissendium has posted an old video (from 1999? 2000?) of an interview of J.K. Rowling. We are trying to figure out what the source is -- it appears to be entirely new! If you have any information about this please let us know.

Highlights: Jo tells the audience that Harry will attend Hogwarts in his seventh year (we knew this already) and that Dudley had better watch out once Harry reaches his majority and can practice magic outside of Hogwarts (also not new canon).

Although Jo has told us that she feels uneasy speaking to crowds, the film clip is a delightful example of how funny and open Jo can be when she is relaxed and comfortable.

Transcript now posted.

Edit: AQ staffer Jules has researched this video and discovered that it dates to October 1999 when she was in the Boston area on tour. There is a related report here.

Updates to Jo's website

Jo has posted a new diary entry as well as two new FAQs ("Won't!") and a Rumour. She knows well how bittersweet it will be for us to have the final book in our hands. She says it's her favourite!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows out July 21st!

The publication date for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is to be Saturday, July 21st! Joyous news, to be sure, but all I can think of is OMG, that is the last day of Summer Reading Club, the most stressful day of the year at work, and just 2 days before our branch's week-long 30th anniversary party! This is going to be an interesting summer.