Okay everybody I would like to know the difference between Philosopher Stone and Sorcerers Stone? I don't know if there is any. I just see people posting it here and there. I'm just trying to figure out why. So can somebody please fill me in.

P.S. My very first Thread!!

"Philosopher's Stone" is the British name of the Book; "Sorceror's Stone" is the American name. In Real History, Alchemists like Nicholas Flamel tried to discover the PS with all the power defined; in the story, Flamel succeeded.

The Marketing Men in suits assume that Americans are dumb and would think "HP and the PS" was a text-book on Philosophy, so they changed the title.

Good summary Rhemus!

Both the book and the motion picture were released in the US with the revised title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, citing the reason that the American and British uses of the word philosopher were slightly different, giving the book title a different meaning in the two countries.

Scholastic, the book's US publisher, also "translated" the original book into American English. The spelling as well as many words and expressions were changed.

This led to criticism by many readers. The New York Times ran an article titled "Harry Potter, Minus a Certain Flavour" on July 10, 2000, which heavily criticised Scholastic's decision to Americanise the US Harry Potter editions.

The U.S have all ways got to be different with their american english why cant every one just call it one or the other?

But I think this is quite unfair. I mean, they've got their own spelling, so why shouldn't they use it? I don't think a lot of Americans would read books which contain a lot of "shall"s and "shan't"s!

No there really is no difference.

The difference is that some peeps call it 1 other peeps call it the other

American children are allergic to dictionaries.

Hey, buddy, please don't bash the US. We didn't ask for the publishers to change the book. I wish they didn't. It's not that much different. But just because the Publishers decided to "Americanize" the books doesn't mean we're all stupid and don't read or use dictionaries.

The person who created this topic asked what the difference was. Not why is the US stupid. Lay off us, please, ok?

And a lot of the words are still British English in the US versions. "Mum" and "trainers" are both still in the books. We don't use those words. (although I do say "mum" now.) However the only reason why they didn't change those words is because Jo insisted that they didn't.

And I think it's stupid how the covers to the books change as well. I like the British covers more than the US's.

Hey, I AM American. Maybe I should have said, "The publishers think American children are allergic to dictionaries."

I think Scholastic did its readers (including me) a great disservice by Americanizing the books, especially changing Philosopher's Stone to Sorceror's Stone. If American kids are unfamiliar with the ancient concept of the PS, they would have learned of it while reading the book. It's not like SS is a concept of which anyone would have heard, since it doesn't exist outside the dumbed-down version of these books.

Sorcerer - a person who practices sorcery; black magician; wizard.

Philosopher - a person who offers views or theories on profound questions in ethics, metaphysics, logic, and other related fields.


(From Dictionary.com)

The people we call alchemists called themselves philosophers. Go figure.

I read the British version and in the sixth book (I'll relate it back to PS/SS), Hermione is fighting with Ron about Slughorn's Christmas party and says ".. if you'd rather I get off with McLaggen", while the American version I believe, says "hook up with McLagen".

So it is the use of varying colloquialisms that is the difference between SS and PS.

Also, Rhemus got it bang on if you're merely inquiring after the title.

The only difference between Philosopher's and Sorcerer's is the name of the book. And perhaps some British terms we wouldn't recognize in America. When Rowling published the book, her American publisher suggested she change the title so it would appeal to a wider audience in America. So she did--but she kept the name in England.

Sorry if this is a little off topic but I LOVE the American covers, potter just wouldn't be potter without Mary Grand Pre's artwork, the pastel pictures grew up with the books, they went from very simple to stunning graphics, by the time we hit book 7 I felt like each cover was a little masterpiece.

Nope no difference, kinda liek tomato-tomato...except spelled differently

I don't know any differences because I've only read the American version, but I'm sure there are some because some words mean different things here in the US than they do in the UK

The reason for the different titles was that the publishers didn't think American children would read books about a philosopher, at least I think I read that somewhere.
And there are the differences in spelling color/colour, etc. But I don't know the other differences, except that the American books have some illustrations in them I think.

Same thing as some have mentioned above: The title and some words/expressions are different. But the story itself is the same.

I think I read somewhere that the next 'editions' (or whatever it's called) of the earlier books being published by Scholastic are no longer being "Americanized". Like 'mum' is retained as 'mum' instead of being changed to 'mom'. I actually like the British version. All the Harry Potter books at home are published by Scholastic except the 3rd and 4th ones. And though the Scholastic chapter illustrations are nice, I find I like Bloomsbury more. Everything being British makes me feel closer to Harry Potter and Hogwarts in England, even if it's just imagination.

ahhhh i've always woundered what the difference was and its been bugging me for years :-/

cheers guys :-)

Haha the difference is British and American

Not really much. I am used to Sorcerers,but that is only because that is the version I have. I would have liked the other better.

Philosophers is the English version and sorcerers is the american version.

It's something they do with all books. My country uses British English, so when I read an American author, it's with the words modified. I mean, come on, we're not that stupid, most of us, on either side of the divide, know that Humour and Humor are the same thing! I get really annoyed about that, I mean, if I want to read something by an American author, I want it in American English! It's like saying that we must change Shakespeare because otherwise no one would understand it today. The spelling is important for the cultural setting, as are the slang words used. Also they do change certain phrases in the Potter books. One example from DH is "baize over a budgeriger"(UK) versus "blanket over a birdcage" (US)