Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the publisher of all "Harry Potter" books in the United Kingdom, on 30 June 1997. It was released in the United States on 1 September 1998 by Scholastic—the American publisher of the books—as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", after Rowling had received US$105,000 for the American rights—an unprecedented amount for a children's book by a then-unknown author. The second book, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998, and in the US on 2 June 1999. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" was then published a year later in
Religious debates over the Harry Potter series LaVaque-Manty of the liberal website Left2Right notes, "Religion plays no role in the books. There are no churches, no other religious institutions, nobody prays or meditates, and even funerals are non-religious affairs." When considering the role of religion within "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", Christopher Hitchens observed the apparent secularism in the novel, stating that the characters of Harry and Hermione possess certain moral virtues while also expressing an ignorance of Christian ideas. In an article written for "Time" magazine before the publication of the seventh and final book in the series entitled "Who Dies in Harry Potter? God,"