What was J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter book published after her mother’s death?

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter book published after her mother’s death.

Anne Rowling died in December 1990 at the age of 45 after suffering from multiple sclerosis. Rowling had begun developing ideas for Harry Potter earlier that year, but her mother’s death deeply affected the project and influenced the emotional treatment of Harry’s parents and loss.

The first novel was published by Bloomsbury on 26 June 1997, more than six years after Anne’s death. Rowling dedicated the book to her mother, and Harry’s grief became an important part of the story. The connection is biographical context, not a claim that the novel is a direct account of Rowling’s life.

The next book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, appeared in 1998. Rowling’s mother therefore died before any Harry Potter novel had been published. Some readers instead associate the family-loss theme with later books, but the first published volume already establishes Harry as an orphan and makes the absence of his parents central to the narrative.