When the founder of Bloomsbury Publishing, Nigel Newton took home a manuscript of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” from a then unknown J.K. Rowling her daughter Alice described it as “possibly one of the best books an 8 or 9 year old could read”.
Twenty-five years later, it is one of the best-selling works of all time, after capturing the hearts and imaginations of children around the world.
“I gave it to Alice, she went upstairs to read. We had the chapters up to Diagon Alley at that stage,” Newton said.
“An hour later she came downstairs saying, ‘Dad, this book is better than anything you’ve ever shown me.’
Sunday marks 25 years since Rowling’s first book about the wizarding world of witches and wizards was published.
Rowling faced rejection until Bloomsbury took over her job with a £2,500 advance. Her story became a huge hit around the world, spawning a whole series of books and a huge movie franchise.
“Did we know it would sell over 500 million copies by the summer of 2022? No, but we knew it was a great text,” Newton said.
“It was the children, not their parents, who adopted this book. It was a phenomenon.”
These kids lined up for hours in front of bookstores waiting for the last parts of Harry’s adventures, which culminated in 2007’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”
For some, like Jacqueline Hulbert, now 23, it also helped them to enjoy reading.
“It was just phenomenal. It was nothing like what I tried to read before, because the story was compelling enough that I wanted to keep reading,” Hulbert said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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