[HPforGrownups] Re: UK vs US

[dracojadon at yahoo.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 170510


On 20 Jun 2007, at 18:02, Lauren Merryfield wrote:

> I'm sure this was discussed a long time ago, but I am new.  Why  
> does the UK version call it "philosopher's stone" and the US  
> version call it the "sorcerer's stone?"

Supposedly it was thought that the American audience would be  
unfamiliar with the legend of the philosopher's stone and be confused  
about the subject of the book.

 From one of the interviews with JKR (see http://www.hp-lexicon.org/ 
about/books/books-hp.html):

"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."

Jadon