Rowling, J.K. (1997) ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’, UK signed 4th print

J.K. Rowling (1997) ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’, UK first edition, fourth printing, published by Bloomsbury. Signed by Rowling on the front free endpaper (ffep) as pictured.

Condition: a very good copy in a near fine dust jacket. Slight shelf wear to edges, slight ageing to paper block as pictured. The book’s spine is slightly fade compared to the colour of the boards. Dust jacket with minimal shelf wear.

Famously the first edition print run was only 500 copies of which 300-350 went straight to libraries. As a result first edition copies in fine condition without library stamps fetch a high five-number sum these days with one signed copy having fetched over GBP 100,000. According to Philip Errington’s ‘J.K. Rowling: A Bibliogarphy’, the second printing followed quickly with a run of 1,000 copies, followed by the third and fourth printing of 500 copies each (p.4).

This is the book which started the global Harry Potter phenomenon. Highly sought after and a landmark book that will always hold its value especially considering that J.K. Rowling does not sign any Harry Potter books anymore bar for charity.