[HPforGrownups] "One more death"

[Margaret Dean]

No: HPFGUIDX 32326

Amy Z wrote:

>Margaret wrote:
>
>>My wild guess:  JKR originally meant for Crouch Jr. (or whoever)
>>to have killed Moody and taken his place, but in the course of
>>writing him she decided the character of Moody was Just Too Cool
>>and that she wanted to use him (Real!Moody) later.  (And who
>>shall blame her?  Certainly not me!)  So she modified the story
>>to suit, but missed the correction in the earlier chapter until
>>after the book was first published.
>
>Great theory, but unfortunately, the "one more curse" was written first.
>It's the American edition that says "one more murder."  Maybe they thought
>Americans would yawn at a mere curse and need a murder to capture our
>attention?

The text of the American edition may actually be earlier.  Recall
that GoF was published simultaneously in the UK and the US to
avoid undermining the US edition with UK imports by people who
Couldn't Wait. ("Who, us?" she asks innocently.)  If that's so,
Rowling may actually have had =more= time to do small fixes on
the UK version before it hit the presses.

Or, of course, the UK publishing house may have had a
sharper-eyed editor.


--Margaret Dean, who's worked in publishing
  <margdean at erols.com>