Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling's 2008 commencement speech at Harvard University is set to be published as an illustrated book. Little, Brown will release the hardcover of Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination, worldwide in English on April 14, 2015.
According to the publisher, sales of the book, to be illustrated by Joel Holland, will benefit both Lumos, a charity organization founded by Rowling that works to transform the lives of disadvantaged children, as well as university-wide financial aid at Harvard.
“I have heard and read many commencement speeches, none more moving and memorable than J.K. Rowling’s,” said Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust. "Years after her visit to Harvard, people still talk about it—and still find inspiration in her singular evocation of the idea that living a meaningful life so often means daring to risk failure. What a powerful example she embodies, and what a remarkable gift her speech was, and is, for all of us privileged to hear it then—and to read it now.”
