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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview with Jerome Kramer
Aired November 16, 2002 - 09:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: Well, what do you know, the Harry Potter craze began with a train ride for author J.K. Rowling. Now her vision of a boy wizard has hit bookstores and movie theaters with a fury, netting millions of dollars worldwide.
And here to talk more about the author who introduced the world to Harry Potter, from Austin, Texas, home of my alma mater, UT, Jerome Kramer. Good morning. He's also the editor of "Book" magazine.
Nice to see you this morning.
JEROME KRAMER, EDITOR, "BOOK" MAGAZINE: ... having us here.
NEVILLE: All right, Jerome, listen, first of all, when I'm reading or listening to the book on CD, Harry Potter, the first thing I want to know is, what kind of mind can create such a world?
KRAMER: A very, very imaginative one. Rowling, boy, from everything we can tell, you know, J.K. Rowling was a phenomenally imaginative little girl from her earliest days. And boy, she was telling stories to her friends, writing stories from such an early age.
I mean, she wrote a -- she is documented as having written her first story, I think, when she was 6 or 7. It was about a rabbit that got the measles. And she wrote other things, you know, as she was growing up and entertained her friends telling these kinds of stories.
Among her friends, interestingly, were a brother and sister pair whose last name was Potter. so that's one of the things she...
NEVILLE: A prelude.
KRAMER: ... she -- Yes, she's pulled things throughout her life that seem to have found their way into the Potter series. But boy, she's collected these crazy names her whole life.
NEVILLE: Really?
KRAMER: Yes, really interesting...
NEVILLE: But, you know, but Jerome, now, you know, listening to you, wondering, I don't know if you've had a chance to speak to her yourself or any of Miss Rowling's friends. Does she carry on a normal conversation? KRAMER: From everything -- from everything we've -- you know, she, she is so popular now, she's so -- she's such a giant star that she's gotten relatively reclusive. But unlike other literary recluses, you know, the J.D. Salinger-type situation, it doesn't seem that she's a -- you know, she's kind of a, a, a, a peculiar, you know, overly private person. I think she just is someone who would like to live a relatively normal life and is the eye of this phenomenal storm.
NEVILLE: Oh, it is phenomenal. She's just creative and imaginative. Now, but I wanted to ask you, though...
KRAMER: It's amazing.
NEVILLE: ... that she is this big star now, J.K. Rowling.
KRAMER: Right.
NEVILLE: And so wondering, because of that, is that -- is it -- does she lose the incentive to finish the sequels because, what's been waiting on, what, three books?
KRAMER: Oh, I don't think so, I, I -- yes, I don't think there's, I don't think there's any danger of that. She had the -- an idea for the entire series apparently at once. She was on a train from, from, I think, Manchester to Kings Cross, and apparently this is about 1990, and the whole, the whole series came to her full-blown. the Harry Potter character, Hogwarts, everything.
he is apparently written the last chapter of the seventh and final book already.
NEVILLE: Oh, good, oh, good.
KRAMER: So she knows where she's going.
NEVILLE: OK.
KRAMER: So I don't think there's any danger of that.
NEVILLE: And many will follow where she takes this, I'm sure.
Jerome Kramer, thank you very...
KRAMER: Right.
NEVILLE: ... for joining us from Austin, Texas, this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 16, 2002 - 09:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: Well, what do you know, the Harry Potter craze began with a train ride for author J.K. Rowling. Now her vision of a boy wizard has hit bookstores and movie theaters with a fury, netting millions of dollars worldwide.
And here to talk more about the author who introduced the world to Harry Potter, from Austin, Texas, home of my alma mater, UT, Jerome Kramer. Good morning. He's also the editor of "Book" magazine.
Nice to see you this morning.
JEROME KRAMER, EDITOR, "BOOK" MAGAZINE: ... having us here.
NEVILLE: All right, Jerome, listen, first of all, when I'm reading or listening to the book on CD, Harry Potter, the first thing I want to know is, what kind of mind can create such a world?
KRAMER: A very, very imaginative one. Rowling, boy, from everything we can tell, you know, J.K. Rowling was a phenomenally imaginative little girl from her earliest days. And boy, she was telling stories to her friends, writing stories from such an early age.
I mean, she wrote a -- she is documented as having written her first story, I think, when she was 6 or 7. It was about a rabbit that got the measles. And she wrote other things, you know, as she was growing up and entertained her friends telling these kinds of stories.
Among her friends, interestingly, were a brother and sister pair whose last name was Potter. so that's one of the things she...
NEVILLE: A prelude.
KRAMER: ... she -- Yes, she's pulled things throughout her life that seem to have found their way into the Potter series. But boy, she's collected these crazy names her whole life.
NEVILLE: Really?
KRAMER: Yes, really interesting...
NEVILLE: But, you know, but Jerome, now, you know, listening to you, wondering, I don't know if you've had a chance to speak to her yourself or any of Miss Rowling's friends. Does she carry on a normal conversation? KRAMER: From everything -- from everything we've -- you know, she, she is so popular now, she's so -- she's such a giant star that she's gotten relatively reclusive. But unlike other literary recluses, you know, the J.D. Salinger-type situation, it doesn't seem that she's a -- you know, she's kind of a, a, a, a peculiar, you know, overly private person. I think she just is someone who would like to live a relatively normal life and is the eye of this phenomenal storm.
NEVILLE: Oh, it is phenomenal. She's just creative and imaginative. Now, but I wanted to ask you, though...
KRAMER: It's amazing.
NEVILLE: ... that she is this big star now, J.K. Rowling.
KRAMER: Right.
NEVILLE: And so wondering, because of that, is that -- is it -- does she lose the incentive to finish the sequels because, what's been waiting on, what, three books?
KRAMER: Oh, I don't think so, I, I -- yes, I don't think there's, I don't think there's any danger of that. She had the -- an idea for the entire series apparently at once. She was on a train from, from, I think, Manchester to Kings Cross, and apparently this is about 1990, and the whole, the whole series came to her full-blown. the Harry Potter character, Hogwarts, everything.
he is apparently written the last chapter of the seventh and final book already.
NEVILLE: Oh, good, oh, good.
KRAMER: So she knows where she's going.
NEVILLE: OK.
KRAMER: So I don't think there's any danger of that.
NEVILLE: And many will follow where she takes this, I'm sure.
Jerome Kramer, thank you very...
KRAMER: Right.
NEVILLE: ... for joining us from Austin, Texas, this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
