The first edition, which was published by Bloomsbury in 1997, had a print run of only 500 copies. Life sales of the book are now estimated to be around 107 million.
The book that got children reading again. Author Joanne Rowling changed her name to J.K. because her publishers thought that boys preferred male authors. To date, some 400 million boys, girls and grown-up men and women have bought copies of the book and its six sequels.
Can there be anyone who hasn’t either read the book or seen the movie? The ubiquitous success of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has launched a global industry of films, books and merchandise worth an estimated $15 billion, and earned its author J.K. Rowling (born 1965) a personal fortune of around $1 billion. Renamed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for publication in the US, it stayed at number one in the New York Times fiction list for nearly a year in 1998. Its run only ended when the newspaper split the list into adult and children’s fiction, at the request of adult fiction publishers who wanted their books to have a chance of being number one.
Harry Potter is an orphaned boy who discovers that he was born a wizard when he is admitted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the age of eleven. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone follows the exciting events of his first year at the school. In particular, he must thwart the evil Lord Voldemort, who murdered his parents and wants to steal the magical Philosopher’s Stone, the source of eternal life and unlimited wealth.
On the surface, the book is a fast-paced thriller about the prevention of a crime. Its phenomenal success is in the richness of its underlying themes, all of universal concern to young people, and quite a few older ones too. The importance of friends and family pervades all seven books and is introduced from the very start with the contrast between Harry’s unpleasant foster parents and his mother, who saved his life by giving hers out of love. Many of his teachers at Hogwarts are important father figures. The circle of close friends that he makes at the school, notably Hermione and Ron, give him strength and support in all his adventures.
Harry enjoys success and popularity at school, as any child wants to, but is always modest about his achievements. He obeys the school’s strict but sensible rules, unless there is a strong and selfless reason for breaking them. Humility and submission to authority are generally good things, but one should always do one’s best and think for oneself about the right course of action. Power in the forms of spells and potions is useful when exercised selflessly, but in the service of greed at the hands of Voldemort, it is dangerous.
The novel does have a dark strand, and it is death. Rowling’s characters spend much time debating it philosophically. It is part of the cycle of life. As Harry’s headmaster Professor Dumbledore says near the end of book, ‘Death is but the next great adventure.’ Harry’s mother’s love prevents his death, and the desire to defeat death is what drives Voldemort, whose very name means ‘flight from [or of] death’, but his attempts to achieve immortality without love are at great personal cost.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone prompted protests from religious conservatives around the world who feared that it promoted black magic. But it displays very clearly the sense that children possess good and bad qualities. The battle between good and evil, between Harry Potter and Voldemort, is sharply drawn. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is, behind all its sorcery, an old-fashioned and highly moral tale.