Harry Potter turns 25

At The Book Collector we know a lot about the phenomenon of a character in a novel taking over the world. Ian Fleming, our founder, set up The Book Collector in the same year he created James Bond exactly 70 years ago and it is undeniable that Bond is still a much-admired hero. This week, however, we are celebrating the 25th birthday of another British hero - the first novel about a young wizard, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published on 26 June 1997.

Its first run of only 500 copies soon sold out and the books have proved immensely  popular and a huge commercial success worldwide with more than 500 million copies sold making it the best-selling book series in history, translated in 80 languages.

Even 25 years on, we are still surprised how Harry took over the world, and how his books can be found on most children's bookshelves, but also on those of rare book dealers and auction rooms.

There is 'already' a major bibliography on J.K. Rowling by Dr Philip W. Errington, senior specialist at Peter Harrington, who trained as a bibliographer, and whose bibliography (published in 2014) was described by Rowling herself as ‘slavishly thorough and somewhat mind-boggling’. In his previous role at Sotheby’s, Philip was also responsible for attaining the world record for a modern literary manuscript sold at auction – The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which sold for £1.95M - and which was of course mentioned in the final Harry Potter novel.

Over the last 25 years, The Book Collector has been closely following the Potter phenomenon and we thought we share some of the highlights from our archive that may be worth revisiting!

In the Autumn of 2011, we interviewed Pom Harrington, and he said then that "English literature is our strongest suit and one in which we have a strong influence on the market - and in the case, for example, of Harry Potter - a very positive one….There are 500 copies of the first edition of the first book in hardback, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, published …by Bloomsbury, who sent 300 copies to libraries. Only 200 copies went into circulation. I sold my first copy to a woman who lived around the corner and had never been in the shop before. She paid £6,000, the market price, but I remember warning her that it might be worth nothing tomorrow. When the film came out in 2001, we sold six copies of the book at £15,000 each. A good copy today [2011] is now worth over £20,000."

In 2003 the first version in Latin was published: Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis, translated by Peter Needham (also by Bloomsbury). In our Summer 2014 issue Aegidius Tonsor wrote that "...the Latin translation of J. K. Rowling's first Harry Potter book, originally first published only five years earlier and thus translated into Latin even before the series of the hero's adventures was completed, underlines - if that were necessary - the way in which this remarkable odyssey has propelled itself not only into the world bestseller class but also into classic status as a children's book. It represents both a consecration usually only accorded to long-loved favourites and an unusual and slightly mysterious aspect of the international book market."

In the Spring 2018 issue we reviewed The British Library exhibition 'Harry Potter: A History of Magic' which was held from 20 October 2017 to 28 February 2018 to mark the 20th anniversary. The exhibition included "...manuscripts, drawings, books and artefacts to appeal to the most devoted fans. J.K. Rowling's typescript synopsis of her first book, a reader's report from Alice Newton, aged eight (whose enthusiasm was key in persuading her father Nigel to publish the book), …were spread through the exhibition." Thanks to modern technology we can still visit it now: https://artsandculture.google.com/project/harry-potter-a-history-of-magic

Darryl Green referred to it again in the Summer 2021 in his article "Book Exhibitions in a Virtual World" when he said: "The British Library deployed a hugely successful suite of online experiences to accompany its blockbuster Harry Potter: A History of Magic in 2017 in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, allowing online visitors to move through the exhibition rooms (devoid of crowds!) and to experience content both from the physical exhibition and the online platform. Experiences such as these are costly and beyond the technical know-how of most libraries and archives and so require commercial collaboration in order to succeed, something that academics have been wary of in the past. The pandemic and resulting lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, have, however, encouraged a large number of institutions to jump with both feet into the deep water of immersive exhibition experiences…"

In our Spring 2015 issue we wrote about The Grolier Club publication of One Hundred Books Famous in Children's Literature, which was accompanied by an exhibition, a colloquium, and a series of related events. Selected by curator Chris Loker and arranged by theme, the exhibition featured books published between 1600 and 2000 including of course Harry Potter.

Chris Loker wrote in Autumn 2019: "Similarly, there’s more to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels than simply a wonderful story about wizards. Written for children, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was immediately adopted by readers of all ages. It was the first of Rowling’s fantasy stories, and is the last item in the Grolier Hundred catalogue. Harry Potter is now the subject of academic studies, and the word ‘Muggle’ has entered the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘a person who possesses no magical powers’ ."

An exhibition of children's books for children, entitled 'Babar, Harry Potter et Compagnie' staged at the BNF in Paris in 2009 proves that Harry's fame was no longer restricted to the English-speaking world. As early as 2000, Cambridge held an exhibition - The journey to Hogwarts: women writing for children 1750-2000,  drawing on the Library's legal deposit collections, from Sarah Fielding's 'The Governess (1749) through J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter volumes. The Fisher Library held an exhibition on banned, censored and challenged books, 1491-2000 in 2005, which we reviewed: "The last section directly confronted Canadians with their own censorship, taking in Balzac as well as Lawrence and Ulysses, and ending with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 'challenged' by parent groups in various parts of Canada because 'the story glorified witchcraft'."

Censorship was still a thing in Winter 2019, when Harry played a part in Banned Books Week in the United States. "By one of those coincidences that make the world go round, only three weeks earlier the Rev. Dan Reehill, a Catholic priest in Nashville, Tennessee, had ordered the removal of all Harry Potter books from the parish school’s library saying that he had consulted several exorcists, both in the United States and Rome and had been assured by them that the curses and spells used in the books were real curses and spells, ‘which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text.’ Specious, you say? Maybe, but well worth a PhD thesis to join the burgeoning school of Harry Potter deconstructivism."

In Winter 2020 we reviewed The 100 best books for children by Brian Alderson, who has been writing and wisely reviewing such books for a long time. He starts with The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) and ends his list with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997).

Naturally, we reported on prices asked and achieved for Harry Potters over the years, making a first appearance in The Book Collector only three years after publication:

• Spring 2000 -  a first mention when Sotheby's and Amazon.com's online auction site offered a mint inscribed copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
• Autumn 2000 -  Simon Finch offered the first three Harry Potters for £18,000 which was considered to be "a fascinating valuation". 
• Autumn 2001 - "In a relatively thin sale of English literature at Sotheby's on 10 July…It was gratifying to see that a fine Treasure Island (£13,000) is still worth more than a signed (in 2001) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (£9,000) …."
• Autumn 2002 - Adrian Harrington's spring list included the first four J. K. Rowlings at £30,000 from a school library, and an apparently pre-first, edition of Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone 1997 was £25,000.
• Spring 2003 - Adrian Harrington's winter catalogue included the first (school library) edition of the same book.
• Summer 2006 -  Adrian Harrington's latest catalogue included an Ian Fleming, Casino Royale in first edition, first state for £13,500 and the author wonders who will pay £6,000 for a signed copy of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003 [sic]).
• 24 May 2007 - at Bloomsbury a signed first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone made a new world record price, £22,800.
• Spring 2008 - Christie's South Kensington sold a first edition for £20,000 - author of the sales report, Peter Selley, raised the question "Too much, too soon, like The Forsyte Saga?"
• 2008 - a review of the Tartarus Press's Guide to First Edition Prices listed Ian Fleming, Casino Royale, up from £15,000 to £17,500, while J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone remained steady at £15,000.
• 15 May 2012 - Bloomsbury sold a mint Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 1997 for £17,000, while "The copies of Ian Fleming's books that he gave to Sir Denis Hamilton, his Sunday Times boss, sold for all but £130,000…"
• May 2013 - Sotheby's held a charity sale of first editions annotated by their authors, which raised a total of £439,200 for English PEN, among them J.K. Rowling's annotated Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone which reached the inevitable high spot. Annotated by Rowling with comments on the process of writing, sources of inspiration, a note on how she came to invent the sport of Quidditch, and embellished with twenty-two drawings, it fetched £150,000. The buyer, a private collector, immediately loaned it to the exhibition of 'Magical Books - from the Middle Ages to Middle-earth' at the Bodleian Library (where the library scenes in the Harry Potter films were shot).
• 4 June 2015 - Sotheby's sold the 'Library of an English Bibliophile', and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 1997, sold for £20,000.
• 5 November 2019 - Hindman sold some very fine material including a signed Harry Potter 1997 which made $120,000.

When we asked our readers to write a short story about an imaginary dinner in 2021, James Bond didn't make it to the top table but Harry Potter was mentioned in 25 stories, on a par with Virginia Woolf and only beaten by Elizabeth Bennet, Sherlock Holmes, Jane Austen and Shakespeare.

Not a bad achievement for a 25 year-old phenomenon - happy birthday, Harry Potter!

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