22 Oct J.K. Rowling’s Very First ‘Harry Potter’ Pitch Has Been Revealed. Would This Make You Read The Book?

Can you believe it’s been twenty years since the very first Harry Potter novel was published? Many fans like myself have read all the books countless times, bought the merchandise, and felt like we’ve grown up alongside Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

It’s no secret J.K. Rowling’s first novel has become an international phenomenon, but more than two decades ago it was just a pitch on a page, waiting for a publisher to snap it up. And believe it or not, it was actually rejected twelve times!

Rowling wrote the original draft of The Philosopher’s Stone in 1995 on an old manual typewriter.

She was a single mother who described herself as being as “poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.” The novel was rejected a dozen times before finally being accepted by Bloomsbury after the chairman’s young daughter read and loved the first chapter.

The Philosopher’s Stone (or, Sorcerer’s Stone for US audiences) was published in 1997 with an initial print run of only 1,000 copies, 500 of which were distributed to libraries. Today, such copies are valued between $21,000 and $33,000!

Clearly it wasn’t Rowling’s pitch for the now beloved series that got her published. There was something special about the work itself that attracted a loyal following. Rowling started to rake in the cash a year later when the book entered a bidding war at auction for the American rights after much popularity and acclaim across the pond.

To honour Harry’s twentieth anniversary, the British Library in London has placed the first page of Rowling’s pitch on display at their new Harry Potter: A History of Magic exhibition. It reads like a basic synopsis, introducing the reader to Harry and his world.

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