Bloomsbury released J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter novel in the United Kingdom in 1997.
The book was titled Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and appeared on 26 June 1997. Bloomsbury was the British publisher that acquired the manuscript and launched the series. The novel introduced Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The book’s United States publisher was Scholastic, which issued it under the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in 1998. That title change is why readers sometimes name Scholastic when asked about the original publication.
Bloomsbury continued publishing the Harry Potter novels in the United Kingdom. The series became one of the most commercially successful publishing phenomena in modern history, while the first book won major children’s literature awards and rapidly gained an international readership.