The first Harry Potter book appeared 25 years ago - and enchanted the world. Fans line up in front of the bookstores for every new release. Even today, the sales figures give the publisher's employees high bonuses.
Twelve times it was said no to Harry Potter. It was only at Bloomsbury, the 13th publisher to which Joanne K. Rowling submitted her manuscript more than a quarter of a decade ago, that the adventures of the magic student aroused interest. Publishing boss Nigel Newton left the first reading to his eight-year-old daughter Alice. "She reappeared an hour later in a kind of trance," Newton recently told The Guardian.
This paved the way - on June 26, 1997, the first volume of the saga about a boy was published in Great Britain, which the whole world should know a little later. With more than 500 million books sold in around 80 languages, Harry Potter is the most successful book series in the world. The first edition of the debut novel "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" comprised just 500 copies - many of which went to libraries. Today, the first editions are collectors' items that fetch large sums of money.
When the first readers immersed themselves in the magical world of Hogwarts School of Magic and got to know and love Harry Potter and his friends Hermione and Ron, the boom was not long in coming - to the delight of the author. She already had in mind what the talented sorcerer's apprentice was to experience in the next six volumes, as Barry Cunningham, then head of the children's book department at Bloomsbury, told the "Guardian".
"The reviews were stunning," added then-marketing officer Rosamund de la Hey. After being nominated for the "Smartie" children's book award shortlist, she bet her boss that 20,000 copies would be sold by Christmas. "He laughed at me then. He still owes me a case of champagne today."
From the second volume onwards, the book release became a long-awaited event: The "Chamber of Secrets" celebrated its debut at London's King's Cross station with the famous platform 9 3/4. The "Prisoner of Azkaban" (Volume 3) went on sale at exactly 3:45 p.m. on the day it was published, which led to long queues in front of the bookstores. Later, when the books came out at midnight and bookstores abroad opened their doors at midnight, Potter fans would gather hours in advance, eagerly awaiting the latest installment.
Even today, since Harry's adventures have long since been told on the big screen, the books are still best sellers. The publishing house Bloomsbury has recorded an enormous increase in sales since the corona pandemic and is paying out a special bonus to all its employees this year - at least Harry Potter is not entirely uninvolved in it.
The corona lockdowns have brought new popularity to reading in Great Britain - a trend which, if you believe the publisher, has continued so far despite greater freedom in the pandemic. The First Adventures of Harry Potter was the sixth best-selling book of the period, according to a BBC report citing the UK Nielsen Bookscan.
The fact that the views of the Scottish-based author Joanne K. Rowling are controversial and that celebrities from the film adaptations such as Daniel Radcliffe have now distanced themselves from her seems to have had only a limited influence on this. Rowling had caused irritation with statements about the position and rights of trans women in society, after which she was accused of transphobia. The author herself denies this.
Radcliffe sided with those who are outraged or disappointed by Rowling's comments, but also appealed to all Harry Potter fans not to let their connection to the magical tales be spoiled. Because it is "holy" and only exists between the respective person and the book.
In any case, the saga remains a tourist magnet for Harry Potter's British homeland: in Oxford, tourists visit the Bodleian Library every year, where various Hogwarts scenes were filmed. In the capital, London, the "Making of Harry Potter" studios and King's Cross train station continue to attract new visitors.
And Wales isn't safe from Potter fans either: the film grave of Harry's house elf Dobby is on Freshwater West beach in Pembrokeshire. Because the beach is always overcrowded and full of socks left by fans to claim Dobby's salvation, the National Trust organization has asked local residents whether the grave site should be removed. "If they remove the tomb, fans will just build a new one," Victoria MacLean, a local Harry Potter fan, told the BBC. "Because there are millions of them."
