The Harry Potter novels and films have a huge group of fans in and outside the USA

I am always amazed by the big universal success of the Harry Potter stories. The Harry Potter novels were written by the British 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 pseudonym J.K. Rowling because primarily her publishing house thought it was a good idea to hide the matter that she is a woman. The publisher feared it could have a negative effect on the sales numbers if everybody immediately sees that the author is female. So, 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 short form. Kathleen is the name of her paternal grandmother.

The very first Harry Potter book - Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone - was publicized in the year 1997 in the UK. Quite remarkable is the point that only 1,000 pieces of the first book were produced at the beginning. The original title of the novel was not Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, but Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. But when the book was published to the US marketplace in 1998, it was publicized as Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.

After that J.K. invented six additional Harry Potter books. Finally the Harry Potter series consists of a total of seven 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 books have been translated into more than 65 languages and have been publicized all over the world. Besides the huge success in the US and Great Britain, Harry Potter is also noticeably famous in the European Union. The Harry Potter stories have been published to German readers under these titles:

• Vol. 1: Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen
• Vol. 2: Harry Potter und die Kammer des Schreckens
• Vol. 3: Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban
• Vol. 4: Harry Potter und der Feuerkelch
• Vol. 5: Harry Potter und der Orden des Phoenix
• Vol. 6: Harry Potter und der Halbblutprinz
• Vol. 7: Harry Potter und die Heiligtuemer des Todes

I must admit that I did not have the time to read all the stories. But there are readers who know them all, which is very impressive and makes up the tremendous success.