J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter manuscript received a publishing offer from Bloomsbury in 1996.
The manuscript was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which Rowling had begun developing years earlier after imagining a boy wizard during a train journey in 1990. Several publishers rejected or passed on the project before Bloomsbury acquired it. The publisher’s children’s editorial director, Barry Cunningham, supported the book.
Bloomsbury published the novel in Britain on 26 June 1997. The short interval between the offer and publication helped launch Rowling’s career, but the worldwide phenomenon developed gradually through reviews, prizes, word of mouth, and international editions.
Some accounts emphasize 1995 because Rowling completed the manuscript around that time, while 1997 is the publication year. Those dates describe different stages. The question asks specifically about the publishing offer, which occurred in 1996. Scholastic later acquired US rights, publishing the American edition in 1998.