Authorised Translations of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
The Complete First Edition Collection

On 4 February 2025, I completed a project that had consumed me for over two years: assembling a first edition collection of every authorised translation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, organised in order of publication—a feat that, to my knowledge, had never been achieved before.

My original goal was straightforward: to collect the first edition of the book in each of the 80 languages into which Philosopher’s Stone had been officially translated. That goal remains the heart of the collection. However, as I progressed, I decided to expand its scope by including all titles listed as "macroeditions" by Potterglot. This brought the total to 106 books, encompassing secondary translations, adaptations, revisions, and one transliteration. Specifically, the collection now includes the original English edition, 81 first translations, 8 secondary translations, 8 revisions, 7 adaptations, and 1 transliteration. While the linguistics department at the University of Chicago considers Modern and Ancient Greek as forms of the same language, I’ve chosen to represent them separately in this collection.

My collecting journey began with a focus on rare and signed Harry Potter books. In late 2022, I reached a major personal milestone: completing a full American set, including advanced reader editions, all signed by J.K. Rowling. After achieving that, I was ready for a new challenge. I wanted to take on something that hadn’t been done before, something that could contribute meaningfully to the knowledge and history of Harry Potter translations. In 2016, Peter Kenneth (The Potter Collector) became the first collector to assemble all authorised translations of Philosopher’s Stone. Since then, others have built similar collections, often concentrating on variations in text block, title font, or cover art. But these collections typically overlook edition and print run details. I wanted to go further—to identify and collect the very first appearance of each authorised translation, focusing strictly on first editions and first printings.

Over the past two years, I’ve worked to establish which edition qualifies as the true first for each translation, to confirm publication dates, and to uncover print run information—an area that, until now, has never been fully documented. The gallery below represents the result of that work. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first and only collection in the world to include the first edition of every authorised translation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Specialised formats such as braille and audiobooks are not included in this project.

I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported this journey—whether by selling me a book or sharing copyright page photos. A special thank you goes to Sean (Potterglot), the foremost expert on Harry Potter translations, whose research has been invaluable and whose dedication to this field continues to inspire.

Please enjoy viewing the collection. Click on any image for more information. This is my personal contribution to the Harry Potter translation collecting community—it's the best I can do.