Rowling wrote Harry Potter through difficult times of poverty and depression surviving on welfare with her daughter whom she had from a brief marriage in Portugal. She now settled in Edinburg near her sister. The first book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which was renamed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for the U.S. edition was published in Britain in June, 1997. The book was a big hit not only among children but also adults.