The Wizardly Editor Who Caught the Golden Snitch

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Long before Book 5 came out, of course, Harry the Phenomenon had turned into the wand-waving equivalent of Godzilla. No one -- perhaps least of all Potter's creator -- had ever thought he could get so big.

Scholastic publicity director Kris Moran remembers accompanying Rowling to Worcester, Mass., for the first bookstore signing of her 1999 American tour, shortly after her third book was published here. "What's going on?" Rowling asked as they approached the store, where they could see that a crowd had formed. "Is there some sort of sale?"

Then came the screaming and the chanting of her name.

A year later, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" became the first Potter book to have its release coordinated worldwide, causing midnight Potter parties to spring up everywhere. Rowling gave up touring. Meanwhile, the initial Potter movie, scheduled for release the following year, threatened to drown her sensitive young wizard in marketing hype.

It was around this time that Levine decided he'd better not let Potter the Phenomenon go to his head.

For a while, he'd felt as though he were living his own version of the Harry Potter story: Mild-mannered editor becomes publishing wizard. "I can still remember thinking: 'Wow -- even more people have discovered Harry Potter,' " he says. But eventually he decided "to be happy whenever something great happened" and then to bring "my focus back to where it needed to be."

On the books.

Which, he maintains, are what's driving the phenomenon in the first place.

Ask Levine what made Harry Potter a hit and he'll talk about Rowling's appealing personal story (Single Mom on Dole Pens Fantasy, Changes Life), which helped get her the kind of media exposure most unknown authors of children's novels can only dream of. He'll also mention that Harry appeared around the time kids were beginning to communicate their enthusiasms, not just on the playground, but online at sites like Amazon.com.

Yet these things are just reasons for people to pick up the books, he says. It's what happens when they read them that counts.

So what's it like to be Arthur Levine at this climactic Harry moment, with the last book in the series so close to publication and his job finally done?

"I feel very, very proud of J.K. Rowling and what she's accomplished," Levine says. "I feel really proud to be associated with a group of such strong books that have brought so many people pleasure."

He hopes and expects to edit Rowling again.

And yet: His days without Harry make him smile, too.

He and his partner have a 3 1/2 -year-old son and, "like, 4,000 picture books" to share with him. They've just gotten into "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel."

He's got other authors to be really, really excited about. One is Australian graphic novelist Shaun Tan, whose wordless narrative of immigration, "The Arrival," he calls "an unbelievable book."

Another is Irish writer Roddy Doyle, whose latest, "Wilderness," is on Levine's fall list.

"Roddy Doyle! Well let me tell you about Roddy Doyle. I can't believe I'm so lucky as to be Roddy Doyle's editor," he says, sounding like a man whose life would be totally charmed even if Harry Potter had never walked into it.

"I just pinch myself, it's so cool."