Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

ROWLING, J.K.; Illustrated by Mary Grandpre.

Item Number: 121545

New York: Scholastic Press, 1998.

First American edition, first printing of the first book in the Harry Potter series. Octavo, original half cloth, illustrated by Mary Grandpre. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author opposite the title page, “for Grace Riley best wishes J.K. Rowling.” This example was signed during Rowling’s visit to Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, Illinois, on the 19th of October, 1998 (Anderson’s bookmark laid in, as well a letter of provenance from the original recipient). Additionally signed twice by illustrator Mary Grandpre, on the title page and on the rear dust jacket flap. Rowling had begun touring America to promote her first book, as Harry Potter was still unknown to American children at the time, where some signing events drew as few as five people. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An exceptional signed example.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is the first novel in the Harry Potter series and J. K. Rowling's debut novel, first published in 1997 by Bloomsbury. The writing has been compared to that of Jane Austen, one of Rowling's favourite authors, or Roald Dahl, whose works dominated children's stories before the appearance of Harry Potter, and of the Ancient Greek story-teller Homer. It has been translated into several languages and has been made into a feature-length film of the same name.