Philosopher vs. Sorcerer (was:Re: What is Canon?)

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 55467

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Dicentra spectabilis" 
<dicentra at x> wrote:

<snip>

> The original title of the first book is "Harry Potter and the
> Philosopher's Stone."  It appears this way in all of the British,
> Canadian, Australian, and other editions worldwide (including 
foreign
> language).
> 
> Scholastic, JKR's publisher in the U.S., decided to change the word 
to
> "Sorcerer's" because they thought that U.S. audiences would be 
turned
> off by the word "Philosopher's" because it was too dull or 
something.
> JKR approved the change.  
> 
> --Dicentra


I'll just add that JKR regrets the change now but was just happy to 
get a U.S. publisher before, so she agreed at the time (this is from 
more than one interview).

The reason this is important is because there were real people called 
Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel, who lived at least part of their lives 
in Paris.  Nicolas really was and alchemist and really did work on 
a thing to change base metal to gold and to give immortal life, 
which was actually known as the philosopher's stone.  You could look 
up alchemy somewhere and find out a lot about it.  If you are 
interested in how the symbolism behind this may relate to "Harry 
Potter" then look at post #38542.

That is why, even though I am American, on this list I usually refer 
to the first book as PS/SS.

Annemehr