UBC’s Rare Books and Special collections contain a large collection of Harry Potter books, from mass-produced prints like full sets of various special editions of the main series and related spin-offs, international and forign language editions, and rare items like an original proof of one of the texts, signed editions, and other copies of provenance. Though not a part of the Arkley collection officially, the spirit of the collection as well as the Alice 100 collection to preserve and collect “books that children actually read” is clearly a big part of what makes this so important to UBCs collection.
Below are a few items of note from the harry potter collection, but there are many more items in Rare Books:
Harri Potter a Maen yr Athronydd: 1st Edition of the Welsh Translation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Translated by welsh author Emily Huws, Bloomsbury published this welsh translation at the same time it published a Latin translation in 2000, one of 80 languages the books have now been published in. Interesting to note is that this version is a later edition with the Dumbledore image on the back rather than the young wizard sen on the English first editions and that some of the character names, including the most obvious “Harry” to “Harri”.
UK Paperback signed by a selection of film actors
This copy of Philosophers stone is not valuable judging from its cover, but on looking on the inside title page, you see the signature of Harry Potter film actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Harry Melling, and Tom Felton dated 23 November 2000, two months into the filming of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. According to an article in UBC’s Trek Magazine speaking to this piece, “Sometimes a book is special not because of the particular edition, but because of its provenance. This paperback copy of Philosopher’s Stone was previously owned by Felicity Walker, a young actress from Hertfordshire, England, who was the body double for Emma Watson’s Hermione Granger in the first three Harry Potter films.”
Illustrated Edition of US Text of Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, with illustrations by Jim Kay
This edition is part of a new set of illustrated editions of the books, with illustrations by Jim Kay. Much like a typical children’s picture book, with illustrations through the text, including full-page illustrations, illustrations which are set into the text, and illustrations placed in the margins. This book is substantially larger than the classic editions of Harry Potter and the sorcerers stone and blurs the lines between Novel format and Picturebook formats. Something notable of this edition is that it didn’t allow the existence of live action movies to affect the artistic renditions of the characters and scenes, as the artist was able to add his own style to really colour in the world of Harry Potter.
Alumni UBC. “Harry Potter and the Legacy of Arkley.” (Trek Magazine, Fall 2017)
Bloomsbury. “JK Rowling Biography.” (Harry Potter. Bloomsbury. Accessed April 15, 2018. https://harrypotter.bloomsbury.com/uk/jk-rowling-biography/).