ROWLING, J. K. (b.1965). Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, London, 1997, 8vo, original coloured pictorial boards by Thomas Taylor, dust-jacket. AN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION, FOURTH IMPRESSION. Errington A1. RARE.

ROWLING, J. K. (b.1965).  Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. London: Bloomsbury, 1997. 8vo (197 x 128mm). Half title. Original coloured pictorial paper boards by Thomas Taylor, the upper board with an illustration of Harry Potter standing in front of the Hogwarts Express, the lower board with an illustration of a wizard smoking a pipe, the dust-jacket with the price of £10.99 unclipped and with "Winner of the 1997 Smarties Gold Award" in a panel at the foot of the upper wrapper, the upper and lower wrappers repeating the designs of the covers. AN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION, FOURTH IMPRESSION, of this landmark work of children's fiction and unprecedented publishing phenomenon, with the following issue points: the verso of the title page has the code numbers "10 9 8 7 6 5 4", the author's name is given as "Joanne Rowling" and there is no space between the 'r' of "Thomas Taylor" and the '1' of "1997"; the repetition of "1 wand" on p.53 of the first impression has been corrected, but "highchair" on p.8 has not yet been changed to "high chair", as it was in later impressions and in all American editions; there is still no Hogwarts coat-of-arms on the title page; with a young wizard smoking a pipe on the lower cover and wrapper (not, according to the artist, originally intended to be Albus Dumbledore, but more a generic wizard); following on from the eighteenth impression, this was replaced by an illustration, by the same artist, of an older, non-smoking wizard who is recognisably Dumbledore. The fourth impression was the second to be issued in a dust-jacket. cf. Errington J. K. Rowling. A Bibliography 1997-2013 A1, stating that only 500 copies of this fourth impression were printed: "A report compiled by the printers, Clays Ltd, notes that the initial print run [of 500 hardback copies] was 'followed quickly by a reprint of 1,000 copies [i.e. the second impression] and three reprints of 500 copies [i.e. the third, fourth and fifth impressions]'"; Christianson & Salter 100 Books that Changed the World pp.208-209: "The book that got children reading again ... Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is, behind all its sorcery, an old-fashioned and highly moral tale"; Grolier One Hundred Books Famous in Children's Literature 100; Miller (ed.) Literary Wonderlands pp.272-275. RARE.