People are always impressed by the huge universal vogue of the Harry Potter stories. The Harry Potter novels were written by the English writer J.K. Rowling. She saw the light of day on 31 July 1965. Her full name is Joanne Rowling. But she writes under the short form J.K. Rowling because primarily her publisher thought it was a good move to hide the matter that she is a woman. The publishing company feared it could have a negative effect on the sales figures if everybody instantaneously recognizes that the writer was female. Thus, instead of revealing her first name she used two letters. As she has no middle name she took Kathleen as basis for the K. in her pseudonym. Kathleen is the name of her paternal grandmother.
The initial Harry Potter story – Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone – was released in 1997 in the United Kingdom. Very remarkable is the matter that only thousand pieces of the first novel were produced at that time. The original title of the book was not Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, but Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. But when the book was released to the US market in the year 1998, it was publicized as Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.
After that Joanne wrote 6 additional Harry Potter novels. Now the Harry Potter series consists of 7 books. These are:
- Story 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone
- Story 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Story 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Story 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Story 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Story 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Story 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The Harry Potter stories have been translated into over 65 languages and have been publicized in a lot of countries. Besides the big success in the US and Great Britain, Harry Potter is also noticeably popular in Germany. The Harry Potter books (German book store: Harry Potter Buecher Kaufen) have been publicized to the German public under these titles:
- 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 those novels. But there are people who know them all, which is quite impressive and is part of the tremendous success.