Welcome to the first of twenty-six blog posts in our Canon Celebration! This time around we’re exploring the first five chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Why am I not saying “Sorcerer’s Stone”? Because that’s not the original name of the book, as you probably know. That’s the title that the editors at Scholastic came up with because they thought that kids in the US wouldn’t want to read a book with the word “philosopher” in the title. Here’s what Rowling said about that:

They wanted to call it something different and I said well how about Sorcerer’s Stone as a compromise. In retrospect I wish I hadn’t changed but to be honest with you I was so grateful that anyone wanted to buy my book at all that I was maybe a bit too compliant about that (HPM).

Ready to have some fun exploring? Here we go!

Podcasts

Canon Thoughts: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Wizard Currency

Magic Brains

Reader’s Guides

These guides were originally written in March of 2002. Since that time, a few edits were made here and there but basically the text remained the same. To get ready for this Canon Celebration, our editors have been revising each one. We’ve added fan artwork to the Guide which illustrates the text. At the bottom in the Commentary section we’ve added a gallery of additional artwork. So even if you’ve read our guides before, please give them another look. And if you’re doing a re-read of the first book, have the Guide to each chapter open as you go! I’m sure you’ll find a lot of information you didn’t know. Here are the Reader’s Guides for each of the first five chapters:

Reader’s Guide to Chapter 1

Reader’s Guide to Chapter 2

Reader’s Guide to Chapter 3

Reader’s Guide to Chapter 4

Reader’s Guide to Chapter 5

Calendars

Fitting the first book into the real-life calendars isn’t easy! In fact, it’s impossible. But that didn’t stop us:

Day by day calendar of events in the book

Text Changes of the Editions and the Years

The text of the first book didn’t stay the same after first being published. The first US edition had quite a few changes in order to make it understandable for American children, who the editors apparently considered to be pretty dim. Here’s the list of differences between the two versions:

Differences between the British and American versions

In 2004, Bloomsbury re-released the books with new covers, including a series for grown-ups who presumably didn’t want to be seen reading a children’s book on the Underground on the way to work. The text changes fixed some errors and inconsistencies. Here’s that list:

Edits and changes to the text

Essays

More than You Ever Wanted to Know about Frog-spawn by Professor Koniphorus Swamp

The Put-Outer and Magic on Privet Drive by Cindysphinx

Imagi(c)nation in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by Connie Ann Kirk

Interesting Artwork

We have hundreds and hundreds of pieces of fan artwork in our collection. Some subjects get a lot of depictions — Diagon Alley is a favorite topic, for example, and, well, of course it is! But there are a few pieces which illustrate more unusual moments in the te