Why name change?

[caliburncy at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 26232

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Mindy, a.k.a. CLH" <mindyatime at j...> 
wrote:
> Steve the indefatigable wrote:
> 
> " the change from "Philosopher's Stone" to Sorcerer's Stone"......
> I may sound like an ignoramus, but what IS the reason that the title 
> was changed? A sorcerer is an evil witch and a philosopher is a 
> philosopher, or does a philosopher meaning something else in 
> Britenglish?

The reason the stone was originally called the Philosopher's Stone is 
because (outside of canon) in alchemy there really was such a concept 
as the Philosopher's Stone.  So JKR, of course, called it what it is. 
 But one of the head marketing people at Scholastic (forget who) 
convinced JKR to change the name to Sorcerer's Stone for the American 
version.  Why?  Marketing, of course (he is a marketing guy after 
all).  Apparently he said that he felt that it's use in the title was 
misleading of the subject matter.  After all, it's a book about a 
wizard so why not make one of the title words sound more magical and 
therefore more indicative of the contents?  Hence, the quite 
unnecessary change.  But some more cynical people contend that the 
change was made because Scholastic didn't believe any American child 
would ever buy a book with the word "philosopher" in the title.  And 
they could be right--both the cynics and Scholastic. :-)

-Luke