J.K. Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in Edinburgh.
Rowling moved to Edinburgh in 1993 with her young daughter Jessica, and the city became closely associated with the completion of the first Harry Potter manuscript. She wrote in her home and in cafés, including the Elephant House, although the popular image that the entire book was written there is inaccurate.
The manuscript was accepted by Bloomsbury, and the British edition was published on 26 June 1997. In the United States, the same book was published under the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Edinburgh’s connection to Rowling should not be confused with the story’s fictional settings. Hogwarts is located in Scotland within the novels, but it is an invented school, not a real Edinburgh institution. The city’s literary associations helped make Rowling’s writing history especially visible to visitors.