What was the title of J.K. Rowling’s debut Harry Potter novel, published in 1997?

J.K. Rowling’s debut Harry Potter novel, published in 1997, was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Bloomsbury published the book in the United Kingdom on 26 June 1997. It introduces Harry Potter, an orphan who discovers that he is a wizard and begins studying at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The story establishes major characters including Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Albus Dumbledore, and Lord Voldemort.

The novel became the first of seven books in Rowling’s main Harry Potter series. In the United States, Scholastic published it under the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone because the publisher believed “sorcerer” would be more familiar to American readers. The plot and characters are otherwise substantially the same.

The book won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize and the British Book Award for Children’s Book of the Year. Its success led to six sequels and a film adaptation released in 2001.