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Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Fabulous Facts
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in print, Primary Times has teamed up with Bloomsbury to create some Fabulous Facts about the book. Test your knowledge and read about the top 10 facts you never knew!
1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the unforgettable first novel that set Harry Potter’s destiny in motion. This magical story was first published in the UK on 26th June 1997.
2. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone contains 77,674 words.
3. There are 1,100,086 words in the entire Harry Potter series.
4. The idea for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was born by J.K. Rowling on a train journey in 1990.
5. Bloomsbury’s initial hardback print run of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 1997 was a tiny 500 copies.
6. The Harry Potter series of books, has gone on to sell over 500 million books worldwide in over 80 languages.
7. The name “Harry Potter” appears 29 times in the main text of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, whilst “Voldemort” appears more often with 38 mentions!
8. Harry doesn’t say anything in the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as he is only a baby. His first word in the novel comes in the second chapter and is “nearly”.
9. In early manuscript drafts Draco Malfoy’s surname was Smart, Spinks and Spungen.
10. The name Voldemort comes from the French words meaning ‘flight of death’.