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J.K. Rowling Reveals Title of Final Harry Potter Book
By
Dec 21, 2006, 15:30
Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
A Bloomberg story by Mark Herlihy at www.bloomberg.comDec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The final book in the Harry Potter series about a young wizard's adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will be titled ``Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,'' author J.K. Rowling announced today.
The title of the seventh book in the series was revealed through a puzzle on the British writer's Web site, where visitors have to click on items to reveal a chamber and then guess the name of the book from the clues given.
``The book's release will be met with an unprecedented level of excitement,'' Kes Nielsen, the head of book buying at online retailer Amazon.com Inc., said in an e-mailed statement. ``Over the past 10 years, so many people have been enchanted by the world and characters that J.K. Rowling created.''
The previous books have sold more than 300 million copies, earning Rowling a 520-million-pound ($1.02 billion) fortune, according to the U.K.'s Sunday Times. That makes her the 10th richest woman in Britain, fives places ahead of Queen Elizabeth II. Amazon said it experienced a surge of activity on its Web site after the announcement, describing it as ``one of the most eagerly awaited books of all time.''
No publication date has been set, said Jude Drake, a spokeswoman for Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. The book is published in the U.K. by London-based Bloomsbury, and Scholastic Corp. publishes the books in the U.S.
Two Deaths
Rowling, 41, said June 27 that two characters die in the final book of the series. ``One character got a reprieve but I have to say that two die that I didn't intend to die,'' Rowling said on the U.K.'s ``Richard & Judy'' television show.
The first book in the series, ``Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone,'' called ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' in the U.S., was published in 1997. The books have been translated into 63 languages, including Farsi and Chinese, Rowling's agent, the London-based Christopher Little Literary Agency, said in October 2005.
Rowling, who studied French at Exeter University in southwest England, said she was inspired to write the first book following the death of her mother from Multiple Sclerosis in 1990 at the age of 45 and after the breakdown of her first marriage. She wrote much of the first novel in cafes, while her young daughter slept in her stroller.
The books have spawned a series of movies starring British actor Daniel Radcliffe in the lead role. The first four movies grossed more than $3.5 billion in box office receipts, according to Box Office Mojo.com. A fifth, ``Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,'' is in production and scheduled for release in 2007.
The sixth book in the series, ``Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince,'' sold more than 2 million copies in the U.K. in its first 24 hours of release, Bloomsbury said in July 2005.
The seventh and last book ``will be like saying goodbye to an old friend,'' Amazon's Nielsen said.
Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
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