In 1996, after years
of struggle, an unknown British author named Joanne Kathleen Rowling
finally found a publisher for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone, her 80,000-word children’s
novel about the adventures of a young wizard. The publication of Harry
Potter was an unlikely and unexpected triumph for the thirty-one-year-old Rowling.
At the time of Harry Potter’s creation, the Bristol-born Rowling
had been recently divorced and was living alone in Edinburgh, Scotland,
caring for her one-year-old daughter, Jessica, and living off of
welfare payments from the government. Since she could afford neither
a typewriter nor typing paper, Rowling wrote nearly all of her debut
novel longhand on scraps of paper and bits of napkins. Another problem
was where to write—Rowling’s cheap one-bedroom flat was too cold
for Jessica to sleep in comfortably, so Rowling was forced to spend
the day drinking water and inexpensive espresso in Edinburgh’s many
cafes, dreaming up adventures for Harry while her daughter napped
in her carriage. Countless publishers rejected Rowling’s manuscript,
judging it too long, too literary, and too slow. Finally, British
publisher Bloomsbury Press accepted the book in 1996, nearly two
years after the manuscript was completed. Rowling was paid an advance
of £2,000—less than $4,000.
Within a year of its initial publication in 1997, Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone became an international
phenomenon, earning unprecedented commercial and critical success
for its author and young hero. The book sold over 150,000 copies
within its first few months on bookstore shelves, and by the end
of year it had sold nearly half a million copies in England, a heretofore
unheard of number for a children’s book. When the U.S. rights to
the book were auctioned off in late 1997,
Arthur A. Levine of Scholastic Press offered a bid of $100,000,
the most the company had ever paid for an acquisition. Soon, an
illustration of Harry Potter appeared on the cover of Time,
making Rowling the first children’s writer chosen as a subject for
a Time cover story. Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer’s Stone was eventually named Children’s Book of
the Year at the 1997 British Book Awards.
In 1998, the book was pronounced Best Book
of the Year by both Parenting magazine and the
New York Public Library and deemed “One of the Best Books of 1998”
by Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal,
and Booklist.
Soon, Rowling signed a contract agreeing to pen six additional installations
of the Harry Potter story. Meanwhile, at least a dozen film studios
had begun scrambling for the rights to turn Harry Potter into
a full-length motion picture. Ultimately, Warner Brothers acquired
the film rights, and, in 2001, released a
successful adaptation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone. The film was promptly followed by sequels in 2002 and 2004,
and Warner Brothers currently has plans to release movie adaptations
of all seven Harry Potter novels. The Harry Potter books
have been translated into sixty-one languages and distributed in
over two hundred countries. The first five books have appeared on
bestseller lists in the United States, Britain, and around the globe,
and to date, more than 250 million Harry
Potter books have been sold. In 2004, Forbes magazine announced
that Rowling was worth over 1 billion dollars, making her one of
only five self-made female billionaires, the only billionaire author,
and one of the richest people in the world.
The explosive global response to the Harry Potter series
has made the books the subject of serious literary criticism and
academic interpretation, another first for a contemporary children’s book.
Scholars have tried to pinpoint exactly why the Harry Potter books
have been so enormously successful. The series’ ability to appeal
to readers of all ages and nationalities has significantly aided sales,
and in terms of genre, the Harry Potter books are complex and dynamic,
incorporating elements of fairy tales, detective novels, boarding
school narratives, adventure stories, quest tales, and fantasy novels.
Consequently, the books actively engage followers of each of those
genres, not just regular readers of children’s literature. Many
critics and literary theorists also suspect that it might be Harry’s
historic battle against evil that contributes to the books’ wide
audience and loyal support. Others argue that it is the series’ empowerment
of children, who shoulder extraordinary responsibility and triumph
despite setbacks, even pausing to instruct adults along the way.
Still, not all readers have greeted Harry Potter with
open arms. A number of religious groups continue to protest the
books, declaring Harry Potter “evil” and accusing Rowling of promoting
thoughts and ideas inappropriate for young children. Rowling’s defenders continue
to insist that she is following in the footsteps of countless canonized
English authors, including C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, who
imbued their writing with Christian themes. The fifth installment
of the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, enjoyed
the series’ biggest opening to date, breaking numerous sales records
around the globe, and proving that interest in the series has not
yet started to wane.
