Harry Potter fans failed the Harry Potter test

Every week on my “Dangerous Laughter” podcast, I speak with people whose ideas deserve a hearing, whether the cultural gatekeepers approve or not.

Sometimes the guest is a politician. Sometimes a journalist. Sometimes a historian. Last week, it was Solomon Schmidt, author of “A Pen to Change the World: The Life of J.K. Rowling,” a biography that should have been among the easiest books in the world to promote.

Somewhere along the way, ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’ stopped being a fictional villain. For too many people, it became the woman who imagined him.

Instead, its reception has become a case study in modern publishing cowardice.

Schmidt told me that organizations serving independent bookstores declined to carry advertising for the book. Harry Potter fan communities that once celebrated