J.K. Rowling Signed Photograph.

British novelist Joanne (J.K.) Rowling’s Harry Potter series has become the best-selling book series in history with over 500 million copies sold. Born in Yale, Gloucestershire, England, Rowling rose to multi-millionaire status from relative poverty within a five-year period which also saw the death of her mother, birth of her first child, and divorce from her first husband. Themes of loss and darkness are prevalent throughout the series, in which a young wizard, Harry Potter, develops his magical powers at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and heroically attempts to overthrow the evil and powerful Lord Voldemort. The first book in the series, and Rowling’s debut novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was first published in England by Bloomsbury in 1997 with a print run of only 500 copies, 300 of which were distributed to libraries, making it the most rare book in the series and one of the rarest young adult novels in the world of rare books. It was published in the U.S. a year later as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by Scholastic who bought the rights to publish for $105,000. Scholastic decided to change the title, fearing that the word ‘philosopher’ might intimidate children; a decision J.K. Rowling later regretted approving. Between 1997 and 2000, Rowling published a new book in the series every year with The Chamber of Secrets in 1998, The Prisoner of Azkaban in 1999, and The Goblet of Fire in 2000. The fifth book in the series, The Order of The Phoenix was published in 2003, followed by The Half Blood Prince in 2005, and the seventh and final novel, The Deathly Hallows in 2007. In 1999, Warner Bros. Pictures bought the film rights for the first four Harry Potter books for almost 2 million dollars. Upon its debut in November of 2001, Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone earned the highest-grossing Thanksgiving weekend record, which it held for twelve years until it was surpassed by The Hunger Games in 2013.