26 Years Ago JK Rowling Published First Harry Potter Book

Today, the Harry Potter series is extremely popular and loved by all. But not many people know about the struggles that JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, faced before the success of Harry Potter. On this day, 26 years ago JK Rowling published the first book of the Harry Potter series, titled “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”. 

Joanne Rowling was born to a British family. From an early age, Rowling wanted to be an author and write novels. She often told stories to her younger sister, Dianne. Her parents did not believe in her dream of being an author. After graduating from college, Rowling started working at a company. Soon after, she moved to Portugal to teach English to students. In 1993, Rowling came up with the idea of Harry Potter, a boy who discovered that he is a wizard and goes to a wizard school. 

Even though Rowling was jobless and struggling with depression, she immediately started working on her story. By 1995, she had finished the first Harry Potter book and started sending it out to publishers. After 12 rejections, she signed a deal with a publishing house called Bloomsbury. 

The Philosopher’s Stone was published in 1997. By 1999 the book had sold 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom. It won several awards including the Nestle Smarties Book Prize. Over the years, Rowling published 6 more Harry Potter books. Warner Bros made movie adaptations of all the Harry Potter books. The huge success of Harry Potter made JK Rowling the first billionaire author in the world.