26 Years Ago JK Rowling Published First Harry Potter Book

On this day, 26 years ago JK Rowling published Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first book of the Harry Potter series. Even though the book brought her overnight success, it wasn’t without struggles. JK Rowling faced multiple rejections and personal struggles before she ultimately signed a deal with Bloomsbury. 

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 dream of being a writer was not supported by her parents who viewed it as a personal quirk, which would not lead her anywhere. After graduating from college, Rowling worked as a translator at Amnesty International. Tired of her desk job, she moved to Portugal to teach English to students. There she got married and had a daughter. Rowling soon became a single mother when the couple decided to part ways. In the same year, 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. 

Rowling often went to cafes to work on her story. At this point, she was jobless and could barely make ends meet. She also struggled with depression which later inspired the concept of Dementors in the Harry Potter series. By 1995, she had finished the first Harry Potter book and started sending it out to publishers. After a dozen rejections, she signed a deal with Bloomsbury. Initially, only 500 copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone were published under the pen name of JK Rowling, where J stands for Joanne and K for Kathleen, her paternal grandmother’s name. 

The Philosopher’s Stone was published in 1997 and by 1999, 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, all of which were made into movie adaptations by Warner Bros. The huge success of Harry Potter made JK Rowling the first billionaire author in the world.