[HPforGrownups] Philosopher^Sorcerer ??..hmm

[Doreen]

No: HPFGUIDX 14724


----- Original Message -----
From: <mssabano at yahoo.com>
To: <HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2001 7:13 AM
Subject: [HPforGrownups] Philosopher^Sorcerer ??..hmm


Why do you think SCHOLASTIC changed the original tile of "Harry
Potter & the Philosopher's Stone" to "Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's
Stone"? It definitely wasn't J.K. who did so. Did they think that it
was more interesting or that us Americans weren't as smart as the
British and didn't know what a Philosopher was!!

Mike

What kind of manuscript changes had to be made to make the U.S. version more
understandable to American readers? Specific things, like the title change
of the first Harry Potter book?
Very few changes have been made in the manuscript. Arthur Levine, my
American editor, and I decided that words should be altered only where we
felt they would be incomprehensible, even in context, to an American reader.
I have had some criticism from other British writers about allowing any
changes at all, but I feel the natural extension of that argument is to go
and tell French and Danish children that we will not be translating Harry
Potter, so they'd better go and learn English.
The title change was Arthur's idea initially, because he felt that the
British title gave a misleading idea of the subject matter. We discussed
several alternative titles and 'Sorcerer's Stone' was my idea.

Doreen
(Yes, Steve, it is nice to have that at your fingertips)