J.K. Rowling completed the manuscript of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 1995.
Rowling began developing the idea for Harry Potter in 1990, while travelling by train from Manchester to London. She spent several years planning the characters and wizarding world before finishing the manuscript in 1995. The completed work then went through the process of finding an agent and publisher.
Bloomsbury acquired the book and published it in Britain in 1997. The gap between completion and publication reflects the normal publishing process of editing, production, marketing, and scheduling, rather than a second writing period for the same novel.
The year is sometimes confused with 1997 because that was the year the first book appeared in shops. Other dates connected with the series include 1998, when the American edition was published, and 2007, when the seventh novel concluded the main sequence.