Bloomsbury released J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter book in the United Kingdom in 1997.
The company published Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on 26 June 1997. The book was Rowling’s debut novel and initially received a modest first print run, but strong reviews and word of mouth helped it become a major success. Bloomsbury continued publishing the main Harry Potter novels in Britain.
Scholastic published the American editions, so readers sometimes name Scholastic when asked about the book’s original publisher. That answer applies to the United States edition, whose title was changed to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The distinction matters because publishing arrangements differed by territory.
Bloomsbury is an independent British publishing house founded in London in 1986. Its Harry Potter success transformed the company’s public profile and became one of the most commercially significant publishing partnerships in modern children’s literature.