THIS IS PART IV IN A SERIES
Every book needs a creator; that creator is the author. This seems like an obvious statement and indeed, when viewing Robert Darnton’s (1982) communication circuit from left to right, the author is the first part of the circuit. However the author was not always considered particularly important. When discussing the concept of authors as geniuses, Haynes notes “long after the invention of printing, there was no such thing as an “author” in the modern sense of the term. Even if the term “author”… began to appear as early as the sixteenth century, it retained the medieval connotation of “authority” and “actor,” as opposed to “genius” or “subjectivity” until the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century (Haynes, 2005, p. 310). Even Darnton, who put the author at the forefront of the book cycle does not put a heavy emphasis on authorship in The Business of Enlightenment and puts more emphasis on the publishing, supply chain, shipping, and selling of the volumes in question (1979). “By the eighteenth century, however, authorship had begun to change, in idea and practice” (Haynes, 2005, p.311). During this time “there term author began to acquire its modern sense of individual and original genius. Authorship gradually became identified with a subjective personality. Moreover, it was increasingly linked with the male gender” (Haynes, 2005, p.311). While Haynes ultimately argues that book historians need to “exorcise the demon of the “genius” that has haunted literary authorship” (2005, p. 316), the author as genius or in more modern terms as celebrity is still very much present today and J.K. Rowling is not exception.
“Remember…you’ll never make any money out of children’s books, Jo. Keep your real job” (Harmon, 2003, p.83).
The statement Rowling’s editor made upon purchasing the first book in what would become a global phenomenon for a measly $1,910 seems laughable now. Let us not forget that Rowling even had to tweak her name {Joanne} because “little boys wouldn’t read stories written by women” (Harmon, 2003, p. 84). Before becoming the author of a trans media franchise, Rowling had it somewhat rough. During her pre-teen years, Rowling struggled at school and her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when Rowling was 12. She barely graduated from Exeter, survived an abusive relationship and wrote Harry Potter while doing her best to make ends meet living on welfare (Harmon, 2003). Rowling has said that when the idea for a book about a boy wizard came to her on a train ride she felt “lightheaded and exhilarated—something akin to falling in love” (Harmon, 2003, p. 83). Now if this doesn’t seem like a stroked of genius, I’m not sure what would be. Speaking of genius, I have heard rumors that Rowling was so desperate to write the start of the story that she did it on cafe napkins. The truth of this is debated online and I wasn’t able to find strong evidence but, true or not, I think it likely stems from two facts:
Rowling told Bustle she wrote the first descriptions of Hogwarts on an airplane barf bag;
and Rowling couldn’t afford to photocopy the original manuscript of Philosopher’s Stone so she used a typewriter to create copies to send out to publishers (Harmon, 2003).
Needless to say, after the initial sale Bloomsbury need to print a few more than the initial 500 copy print run and the rest is literally literary history (Harmon, 2003).
I was hoping to include some images or links to Rowling’s original manuscripts but she hasn’t yet donated her papers to any archives. In a July 2021 interview with BBC Radio 4 Rowling admits to still having all her manuscripts, and to perhaps doing something uncouth like throwing them in a fire, eek. This biography and interview give us an image of Rowling as a genius and tormented artist. She has graced the cover of so many magazines she can also easily be considered a celebrity.
If you are looking for primary source material for Rowling, she is quite famous for her Twitter feed where she outspoken on many things. When reviewing the author as genius, we must also accept that geniuses have their flaws. In 2020 Rowling tweeted comments denying the existence of transpeople (BBC, 2020). Many people felt harmed and angry by these comments while other rallied behind Rowling. It should be noted that other authors have also been controversial including Roald Dahl who is know for making anti-semitic comments (Talbot, 2005). I do not have the space to run through the many sides of the story around Rowling’s comments but they need to be mentioned for a few important reasons. Rowling’s Twitter feed is like a living archive, it gives historians and readers insight into who she is as a person. Studying an author’s archives is a common method of learning more about them and their books. The Haynes (2005) article I quoted from in the introduction to this post makes the case for abandoning the author as genius in favor of studying them as part of a bibliographic whole (Haynes, 2005). If Rowling was studied only from her Twitter feed and interviews, we’d be missing an important part of who she is as a creator. The Harry Potter series was already being studied from a range of angles including its lack of diversity; Rowling’s comments provide some answers as to why this might be.
The success and impact of the Harry Potter series cannot be denied and controversies such as Rowling’s point to the importance of the many facets of book history; studying the book from a variety of angles gives us better insight into what it is and how it came to be.
Citations
BBC News. (2020, June 11). JK Rowling responds to trans tweets criticism. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53002557
Darnton, R. (1982). What is the history of books? Daedalus, Vol. 111.
Darnton, R. (1979). The business of enlightenment: A publishing history of the Encyclopédie 1775-1800. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Harmon, M. B. (2003). J.K. Rowling: The Real Life Wizard Behind Harry Potter. Biography, 7(9), 82–85.
Haynes, C. (2005). Reassessing “genius” in studies of authorship: The state of the discipline. Book History 8, pp.287-320.
Rowling, J.K. (1998). Harry Potter and the sorcerer’s stone. Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Press.
Talbot, M. (2005). The candy man: Why children love Roald Dahl’s stories—and many adults don’t. The New Yorker, July 11, 2005 issue.
*Some citations for web resources are linked directly in the post (in blue).