The First Harry Potter Book Is Published

On 26 June 1997, the British publishing house Bloomsbury issued a modest print run of 500 hardback copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Approximately 300 of these volumes were directed to public libraries. Written by Joanne Rowling under the pen name J. K. Rowling, the debut fantasy novel arrived after a six-year development period that began in 1990 when the author envisioned the central character during a train trip from Manchester to London. Numerous publishing houses had declined the manuscript because its length of roughly 90,000 words was widely considered excessive for children's fiction. Barry Cunningham of Bloomsbury eventually accepted it, paying Rowling an advance of 2,500 pounds and encouraging the adoption of initials on the cover out of concern that young male readers might avoid a book by a female author.

The novel introduced readers to Harry Potter, an orphaned boy living in Little Whinging with his neglectful aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley, alongside their bullying son Dudley. On his eleventh birthday, Harry learns from the gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid that he possesses magical heritage and has gained admission to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Hagrid explains that an evil wizard named Voldemort murdered Harry's parents but was stripped of his body when his lethal curse rebounded, leaving Harry with a distinctive scar. Soon afterward, Harry enters a secluded wizarding community, boards the Hogwarts Express, and is assigned to Gryffindor House alongside his new friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Together, the trio uncovers a scheme by Voldemort, acting through the possessed teacher Quirrell, to steal the immortality-granting Philosopher's Stone.