On June 26, 1997 the U.K. was introduced to a young wizard named Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling's now famous first book, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", was the start of a worldwide phenomenon that soon led to blockbuster movies, TV, games, and more. To date, the books have been translated into 67 languages and sold over 500 million copies worldwide. Even people who have never read the books or seen the movies (are there such people?) know who Harry Potter is.
Even so, there are a few things you might not know about the young wizard's creator:
- Eight publishers rejected Rowling's book before Bloomsbury picked it up, one of them writing "don't quit your day job".
- The day before publication, Bloomsbury asked Rowling to adopt a "gender-neutral" pen name. They believed boys wouldn't a book about a boy wizard if it was written by a woman.
- When U.S. publisher Scholastic bought the American rights, they changed the title to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" because "philosopher" didn't sound "magical" enough.
I didn't know any of this until after I had read (and re-read) the series and seen every one of the movies. Finding out what Rowling had to go through to bring her series to life and share it with us made me love it even more. There's nothing like a good "underdog comes out on top" story - whether it's in a book, a movie, or in real life!
