Harry Potter her publishers to adopt a more gender-neutral pen name in order to appeal to the male members of this age group, fearing that they would not be interested in reading a novel they knew to be written by a woman. She elected to use J. K. Rowling (Joanne Kathleen Rowling), using her grandmother's name as her second name because she has no middle name. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was published by Bloomsbury, the publisher of all "Harry Potter" books in the United Kingdom, on 26 June 1997. It was released in the United States on 1 September 1998
Harry Potter (film series) Harry Potter (film series) Harry Potter is a British-American film series based on the "Harry Potter" novels by author J. K. Rowling. The series is distributed by Warner Bros. and consists of eight fantasy films, beginning with "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (2001) and culminating with "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2" (2011). A spin-off prequel series that will consist of five films started with "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" (2016), marking the beginning of the Wizarding World shared media franchise. The series was mainly produced by David Heyman, and stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert