SOURCE: “Popular Harry Potter Book Series Offers a Lesson in Business,” in Tribune Business News, July 19, 2000.

In the following essay, Kanfer explains why he thinks literary excellence is good business, as illustrated by the success of the “Harry Potter” books.

More than 3 million copies of the latest Harry Potter are in print, with more en route. The evidence is irrefutable, and measurable in any bookstore.

The success of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books demonstrates that literary excellence—even when coupled with ethical seriousness—is good business.

Rowling presents a moral universe with abiding values: There, honor is not obsolete, nor are trust, courage, loyalty and the dignity of labor. And there, deceit is nothing to snicker at, but something to be reviled.

Strangely, it is this moral conviction that threatens handfuls of yahoos who want to see Rowling's creations taken off the shelves. The South Carolina Board...