Printing Mistake

[Carol]

Danielle wrote:
>
> I am going through yet another endless reread of all the HP books,
and I am reading my British copy of POA and noticed this mistake 'A
History of Magic, by Adalbert Waffling".  I checked PS/ST and it says
Waffling did Magical Theory, doublechecked my POA American Edition,
and it says History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot. I just found this
funny, because my British edition is a later edition, I know this
because my British PS, says FLint is a 5th yr instead of a 6th yr.
Does anyone else have a POA American or British edition with the same
mistake as mine in it??? Has anyone mentioned this mistake before?

>
Carol responds:
The Lexicon lists this error, which occurs only in the British
edition, as a difference between the British and American editions of PoA:

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/about/books/pa/differences-pa.html

My guess is that the error is JKR's and was caught in the manuscript
by the American continuity editor or a copyeditor but was missed by
their counterparts at Bloomsbury. whether it has been corrected in
subsequent editions, I don't know.

It's a shame: Adalbert Waffling as the author of a book on magical
theory is one of JKR's own little jokes (cf. Ron's words in OoP about
Umbridge's speech sounding like "a load of waffle" to him). and JKR
should have remembered that Bathilda Bagshot, the author of "A History
of Magic," would have a part in DH--as the author of a book on the
history of magic. Maybe it was late at night and, as JKR was glancing
at a list of textbook authors, her eyes slipped down one line between
the time she wrote the author's name and the title ("Magical Theory"
by Adalbert Waffling immediately follows "A History of Magic" by
Bathilda Bagshot in SS/PS and probably in JKR's notes, as well).

Don't know if that makes sense, but if I can write "800 pages" when I
mean "800 words," JKR can mix up two authors even though, in another
part of her brain, she's perfectly aware of the distinction. I suppose
it's like calling your mother by your sister's name, or your boyfriend
by your ex-husband's.

Carol, glad that the American copy/continuity editor was on the alert
in that instance, at least