Rowling Kudos

In my first blog, I described how my attitude toward Harry Potter changed from sick-of-the-hype to reading The Half-Blood Prince in two days.

Well, I got some more props to send J.K. Rowling's way. Here is an excerpt from the very fine Mendeleyev's Dream: The Quest for the Elements, by Paul Strathern:

A few alchemists even published their memoirs, one going so far as to describe his successful quest. In his Exposition of the Hieroglyphicall Figures the Parisian scrivener Nicolas Flamel tells how he set out on an alchemical pilgrimage through France and Spain, where he met a certain Master Canches, a Jewish physician.

Strathern goes on to quote Flamel's account of creating the fabled Philosopher's Stone, and using it to turn a small quantity of mercury into gold.

Those of you who are Harry Potter fans are already sitting up and taking notice, I'm sure. You're having the same thought I did: "Nicolas Flamel was an actual historical figure? A real person? Holy crap!"

OK, I'll explain for those two of you who haven't read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (or, as it was originally titled in Great Britain: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone).

First, a quote from that first Harry Potter novel:

Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. . . . Harry turned over the card and read: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE, currently headmaster of Hogwarts. Considered by many to be the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.

So, yes: J.K. Rowling worked some actual history of chemistry into her very fictional Harry Potter novels. According to his Wikipedia entry, Nicolas Flamel was quite the alchemical giant in his day. I'm sure some chemistry majors out there knew that already, but this is one of the things I love about reading: coming across a new connections to things I've read in the past.