Harry Potter stories and movies have an avid following in and outside the UK
People are quite fascinated by the tremendous international success of the Harry Potter novels. The Harry Potter novels were written by the British writer J.K. Rowling. She saw the light of day on 31 July 1965. Her complete name is Joanne Rowling. But she writes under the short form J.K. Rowling because primarily her publishing house thought it was a helpful idea not to show the fact that she is female. The publishing house thought it could have a negative effect on the sales numbers if everybody instantaneously sees that the writer was female. Consequently, instead of using her first name she used two initials. As she has no middle name she took Kathleen as basis for the K. in her alias. Kathleen is the name of her grandma.
The first Harry Potter book – Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone – was publicized mid 1997 in the UK. Quite interesting is the fact that only thousand pieces of the first novel were publicized at that time. The original title of the novel was not Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, but Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. But when the book was publicized to the American market on 1 September 1998, it was released as Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.
After that Joanne wrote several additional Harry Potter novels. Finally the Harry Potter series is made of a total of 7 stories. These are:
- Book 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone
- Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The Harry Potter books have been translated into more than 55 languages and have been publicized all over the world. Besides the huge success in the US and the United Kingdom, Harry Potter is also very liked in the European Union. The Harry Potter stories (German book store: Harry Potter Buecher Shop) have been published to the German audience under the following headers:
- Teil 1: Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen
- Teil 2: Harry Potter und die Kammer des Schreckens
- Teil 3: Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban
- Teil 4: Harry Potter und der Feuerkelch
- Teil 5: Harry Potter und der Orden des Phoenix
- Teil 6: Harry Potter und der Halbblutprinz
- Teil 7: Harry Potter und die Heiligtuemer des Todes
I must admit that I did not have the opportunity to read all the stories. But there are fans who know them all, which is quite impressive and makes up the big success.