J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter manuscript was first published in 1997.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was released in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury on 26 June 1997. The publication followed the acquisition of the manuscript by editor Barry Cunningham, who worked with Rowling at Bloomsbury.
The book’s success grew through strong reviews, school-reader enthusiasm, and major children’s-book awards. Scholastic published the American edition in 1998, using the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
The manuscript had a long development before publication. Rowling conceived the central idea during a train journey from Manchester to London in 1990, then spent years planning and writing the novel. The 1997 date therefore marks the first publication, not the beginning of the idea or the completion of the manuscript.