On this date in 1997, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was first published by Bloomsbury Publishing. It had an original run of 500 hardcover copies. From that humble beginning, the Harry Potter series was to become a global phenomenon, loved by young and old alike.
CNBC‘s Sarah Rappaport spoke with Bloomsbury CEO and founder, Nigel Newton, about this special anniversary. According to Newton, Potter’s great success was even more incredible in that it was one of Bloomsbury’s earliest ventures in children’s books. “After we floated, we started a children’s division and got lucky very quickly. We were very lucky that one of our earliest children’s books ended up being as big as it did.” he said.
Today, the Potter series is still available for purchase as individual books or as an entire box set. With the advent of Pottermore, one can also purchase e-books as well as the audio books from that site.
Happy Anniversary! Are you doing anything special to mark the day? Also, what do the Potter books mean to you? Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section.
Wow. 15 years…time flies. I just finished (last night) re-reading the series, and I can’t even count how many times I’ve read it. Definitely more than 15 times in 15 years…maybe 30? Maybe more?
Happy Anniversary Harry Potter. Thank you so very much J K Rowling.