Post by benziger on Aug 30, 2020 22:35:23 GMT
The story of an unlikely coincidence, which has been fascinating and entertaining the Polish web since 2011: Harry Potter was not born from the imagination of J.K. Rowling, but from that of an obscure Polish author, Jan Rostworowski. The latter indeed published a short story entitled Harry Potter, featuring the homonymous character, in the literary magazine Życie Literackie, in 1972.
Rostworowski's Harry Potter is more ordinary, running a store. The author, according to his son, Bogusław Rostworowski, wanted to report in this story on his own experience as a meat delivery man for various stores in the United Kingdom.
Born in 1919 in Poland, Rostworowski moved to the United Kingdom in the 1940s and lived there for almost thirty years.
Rostworowski's Harry Potter is more ordinary, running a store. The author, according to his son, Bogusław Rostworowski, wanted to report in this story on his own experience as a meat delivery man for various stores in the United Kingdom.
Born in 1919 in Poland, Rostworowski moved to the United Kingdom in the 1940s and lived there for almost thirty years.
In his text, Rostworowski describes Harry Potter as a 17-year-old boy, "or maybe two years older", who sells Krakow sausages and pickles in his store. No magic wand in sight, so... It seems that the author chose the name Potter completely by chance, because the name Potter was quite common in the country at that time.
Of course, it seems unlikely that Rowling, born in 1965, ever heard of Jan Rostworowski and his namesake, the wizard with glasses.
The full text of the Harry Potter novel can be found at this address (page 9), in Polish.
The full text of the Harry Potter novel can be found at this address (page 9), in Polish.
Photography: the text Harry Potter by Jan Rostworowski, published in Życie Literackie, in 1972. Screenshot of the digitization of the Malopolska Digital Library
