Books News

Rowling denies plagiarism accusations

By Jessica Schneider Jun 17, 2009, 12:43 GMT

J.K. Rowling is once again being accused of plagiarism, this time in regards to her fourth book in her Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”

 The Estate of Adrian Jacobs is making the claim that Rowling “copied substantial parts” of Willy the Wizard, written by Jacobs in 1987.

The author of this 36-page booklet is no longer with us, for he died “penniless” in a hospice in 1997, the article states.

Bloomsbury, Rowling’s publisher stated that Rowling: “"had never heard of Adrian Jacobs nor seen, read or heard of his book Willy the Wizard until this claim was first made in 2004, almost seven years after the publication of the first book in the highly publicized Harry Potter series,” Reuters notes.

Though the Jacobs Estate claims: “Both Willy and Harry are required to work out the exact nature of the main task of the contest which they both achieve in a bathroom assisted by clues from helpers, in order to discover how to rescue human hostages imprisoned by a community of half-human, half-animal fantasy creatures.”

Read the Reuters article here.