why did they change harry potter and the philosopher's stone to sorcerer's stone
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Scholastic Corporation bought the U.S. rights at the Bologna Book Fair in April 1997 for US$105,000, an unusually high sum for a children's book.[15] They thought that a child would not want to read a book with the word "philosopher" in the title and,[32][not in citation given] after some discussion, the American edition was published in September 1998[33] under the title Rowling suggested, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.[15] Rowling claimed that she regretted this change and would have fought it if she had been in a stronger position at the time.[11] Philip Nel has pointed out that the change lost the connection with alchemy, and the meaning of some other terms changed in translation, for example from "crumpet" to "muffin". While Rowling accepted the change from both the British English "mum" and Seamus Finnigan's Irish variant "mam" to "mom" in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, she vetoed this change in the later books, which was then reversed in later editions of Philosopher's Stone. However, Nel considered that Scholastic's translations were considerably more sensitive than most of those imposed on British English books of the time, and that some other changes could be regarded as useful copyedits.[30] Since the British editions of early titles in the series were published months prior to the American versions, some American readers became familiar with the British English versions due to buying them from online retailers.[34]
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling. It is the first novel in the Harry Potter series and Rowling's debut novel, first published in 1997 by Bloomsbury. It was published in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by Scholastic Corporation in 1998. The plot follows Harry Potter, a young wizard who discovers his magical heritage on his eleventh birthday, when he receives a letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. Harry makes close friends and a few enemies during his first year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. With the help of his friends, Harry faces an attempted comeback by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents, but failed to kill Harry when he was just 15 months old.