Writer
- Born: 31 July 1965
- Birthplace: Chipping Sodbury, England
- Best Known As: Creator of fictional wizard
Harry Potter
Joanne K. Rowling
(pronounced rolling) is the
author of the Harry Potter series of books, which began with the 1997
tale Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone. (U.S. title: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.) The book told the story
of Harry Potter, a seemingly ordinary boy who discovered that he was actually a
wizard. The book was a sensational hit, and by the end of 1999 the top three
slots on the New York Times
list of bestsellers were taken by the first three books in the Harry Potter
series. By the 2000 release of the fourth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,
Harry Potter had become a global pop culture phenomenon, with parents and
children standing in line at bookstores waiting for the book's release. Rowling
herself had become one of the world's best-known and best-paid authors. After
the 2003 release of the fifth Harry Potter book, The Order of the Phoenix, the BBC reported that Rowling's
books had been translated into 60 languages (including ancient Greek) and had
sold over 250 million copies worldwide. The sequels to the original book are: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(1999), Harry Potter and the Prisoner
of Azkaban (1999), Harry Potter
and the Goblet of Fire (2000), Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
(2007). Rowling has stated that the seventh book is the last in the series.
The films Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
(2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber
of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter
and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
(2007) starred Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry's friends Ron and Hermione, and Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy... Rowling married Dr. Neil Murray in Scotland on 26 December
2001; their
children are David (b. 2003) and Mackenzie (b. 2005). Rowling has one child,
Jessica (b. 1993), from her previous marriage to Jorge Arantes,
a Portuguese TV journalist.
Biography
Born Joanne Kathleen Rowling in 1965, J.K. Rowling
spent several years after graduating from college in relative poverty; she
worked briefly as a teacher, and, after her divorce, lived off the English
public-assistance program while taking care of her baby daughter, Jessica.
During her child's naps, Rowling frequented a small English café and penned,
unbeknownst to her, what would become a literary and pop-culture phenomenon --
Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. After winning
numerous awards and building up a bank account that would rival those of the
world's richest individuals, Rowling allowed Warner Bros., screenwriter Steve Kloves, and director Chris Columbus to produce film adaptations of what fans have
coined the "Potterverse." Like the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, whom Rowling lists as one of her
inspirations, the Potter series has helped bring the fantasy genre back to
mainstream film audiences, and raised the bar in terms of special effects, CGI,
and even set and costume design. Though written for children, the books have
attracted more than a few adult fans, including the films' star-studded casts
-- Emma Thompson, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Michael Gambon, and Robbie Coltrane all list the series as one of their favorites. In 2004, Y Tu Mamá
También director Alfonso Cuarón left his mark on the film series
with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, while the fourth film in the
series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), was directed by Mike Newell. ~ Tracie
Cooper, All Movie Guide
Filmography:
J.K. Rowling
Biography:
J. K. Rowling
Something of a publishing phenomenon, J. K. Rowling (born 1965) has
sold more than a quarter-billion books from her series of novels about a
British boy wizard named Harry Potter. With the wildly popular series, Rowling
single-handedly revived the market for children's literature. The books,
translated into over 600 languages, spawned a sequence of worldwide box-office
movie hits, and were credited with getting an entire generation of children
raised on video games, television, and the Internet interested in reading
again.
Born in 1965, in Chipping Sodbury,
a small town in Bristol, England located a few miles south of Dursley, hometown to her fictional protagonist Harry
Potter, Joanne Rowling was the daughter of a French-Scottish mother named Anne,
and a Rolls Royce engineer father named Peter Rowling, who met on a train
leaving King's Cross Station in London. She also has one older sister,
Diana. In 1971, the Rowlings moved to nearby
Winterbourne, in Bristol, and among the children's friends were Ian and
Vikki Potter. Three years later, the family moved again, to Tutshill,
near the border of Wales.
Rowling says she started
writing stories at age six. Her first story, Rabbit, was about a rabbit with measles. Rowling later described herself as a child to a January Online interviewer as much
like Harry Potter: "short, squat," wearing thick glasses, shy, "very bossy" and "very bookish," though "terrible at school." She said she was
"never happier than when reading or writing."
Rowling studied French at Exeter University and earned a bachelor's degree in
1986. After graduation she worked as a secretary at various firms, including a
publisher, where part of her job was writing and sending out rejection letters
to prospective authors. Her dream was still to become a writer, and she started
several adult novels but never finished them. In 1990, Rowling first imagined
Harry Potter while on a train that was delayed for hours between Manchester and London, and has noted that the character
emerged to her "fully formed."
In 1990 Rowling moved to Portugal to teach English, and there she met
and married Portuguese television journalist Jorge Arantes,
with whom she had a child, Jessica. Unfortunately, the marriage ended in
divorce after a stormy two years marked by frequent quarreling.
Although Rowling has denied basing her arrogant, lying wizard Gilderoy Lockhart on Arantes, she had noted that the character in the Harry
Potter series was modeled on a real person who was
"even more objectionable than his fictional counterpart."
Achieved
Breakthrough
Rowling returned to Great Britain in 1993 when Jessica was three
months old, and moved to Edinburgh, where her sister Diana lived. While
raising her young daughter by herself and battling fits of depression, she
wrote the drafts of her book in longhand because she could not afford a used typewriter, much less a computer. With the help of a
grant from the Scottish Arts Council, Rowling finished the book, then found an agent, Christopher Little, by looking through
directories at the library. In 1996, while its author was working as a French
teacher in Edinburgh, Bloomsbury published Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, having picked up
Rowling's manuscript after several other publishers rejected it.
Rowling decided to use
initials rather than her first name to disguise her gender and ward off any
possible bias from her target audience of young boys; because she had no middle
name of her own, she used K to stand for Kathleen, the name of her favorite grandmother. In 1998 the book was published in the
United States as Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and Pottermania
began. No one in the publishing business had ever seen anything quite like it:
hardcover sales were soon in the millions and the book was being read by
children and adults alike. Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone proved to be the best-selling
children's book in decades. As the author was quoted by January Online, "I thought I'd written something that a
handful of people might quite like. So this has been something of a
shock."
Fame and Fortune
From an unemployed single mother, Rowling enjoyed a dizzying ride
to celebrity status. By the time her third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, was released, Harry
Potter was appearing on the cover of Time
magazine, and Rowling had to make her peace with being a worldwide celebrity.
She changed her bright red hair to a less flamboyant dark blonde. On tours, she could do author's
readings only in venues that normally hosted rock stars and sporting events.
When she remarried in December of 2001, she had amassed a fortune estimated at
$150 million. Her new husband was Neil Murray, an anesthesiologist,
who quit his job to be with Jessica while her mother worked and traveled. The family moved into an 1865 mansion, Killiechassie House, near the Scottish town of Aberfeldy, which they had bought for a
reported $2.75 million. In March 2003, their son, David, was born, and a second
child was expected in 2005.
When the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,
appeared there were major bookstore events at midnight on the day of publication. It sold
an unheard-of three million copies in the first 48 hours, the fastest-selling
book in publishing history. The novel also became the best-selling book of
2000, selling seven million copies in hardcover.
Inevitably, Potter's books
became the cornerstones of a global franchise of movies, video games, toys,
clothing, and collectibles, making Rowling richer than perhaps any author in
history. The film versions followed each book by an interval of a couple of
years, and virtually every year either a book or a film version of an early
book were released, and sometimes one of each, with each release timed to
maximize sales. The movie version of Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, released in 2001, had a lukewarm critical reception but a huge audience. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets followed in 2002, and Harry Potter and thePrisoner
of Azkaban, the most critically acclaimed film of the series, was one of
the top hits of 2004. The movie adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was due out in 2004, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was slated
for 2007. A film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
was projected for a 2008 release in early 2005, months before the novel it
would be based on was even published.
Rowling's books and movies did not
appeal just to children; many adults were big fans of them too. As Rowling
explained to a January Online
contributor, "When I write the books, I really do write them for me. . . .
So the humor in the books is really what I find
funny." She said the character of Hermoine was
based on herself, but that she never considered abandoning the idea of the boy,
Harry, being the hero and protagonist. Each book takes Potter and Hermoine and their schoolmates through another academic
year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, an institution that is clearly a
thinly disguised parody of aristocratic British boarding schools. In each book
they faced incarnations of enemies and have to use magic to defeat them, while
pausing for games of "quidditch," a
fanciful version of soccer played on broomsticks.
A Magical
Franchise
As the series progressed,
Rowling's books got longer and longer. Publishers and book critics, already flabbergasted by the success of the series worldwide, shook
their heads at a first U.S. printing of 8.5 million copies for
the 896-page Harry Potter and the
Order of the Phoenix in June of 2003. Despite the books'
increasing length, sales grew with each publication. Every one of the
"Harry Potter" books made the best-seller lists, and some stayed on
the charts for a year or more. Prince Charles, who professed to being a fan of the "Harry Potter" series, named
Rowling as officer in the Order of the British Empire, and in 2004 she received an
honorary degree from Edinburgh University.
Critics searched for
reasons why ten year olds were willing to wade through such tomes, and the key
was the readily understood adventures. "In contrast to the lack of power
most children have in their own lives, Harry and his friends master the natural
world and make it behave in ways that are most unnatural," wrote Sara Ann Beach and Elizabeth
Harden Willner in World Literature Today. "In addition, they are able to use
their power to frustrate those adults who do not have children's best interests
at heart. Rowling opens the door for adolescent readers to share the characters' power while
experiencing a connection to literature that has the potential to enrich their lives."
With adulation came the
travails of celebrity. In 2002 Nancy Stouffer of Pennsylvania sued Rowling in New York for plagiarism, claiming she had stolen ideas from Stouffer's 1984 book The Legend of Rah
and Muggles, whose characters include a Larry
Potter. The case was dismissed when the judge ruled Stouffer had doctored
evidence and lied to the court. In 2003, Rowling and
publisher Time Warner successfully sued a Dutch publishing company and
prevented release of a book that featured a girl wizard named Tanya Grotter that Rowling argued infringed her copyright.
Despite the popularity of
the series, Rowling maintained in her January
Online interview that she was still "writing from the plan I had in
1995." According to the novelist, she began the "Harry Potter"
series planning for seven books and intended to be able to say "I stayed
true to what I wanted to write. . . . That won't be deflected, either by adoration or by criticism."
The
"Meaning" of Potter
The "Harry
Potter" phenomenon understandably sparked interest far beyond the literary
community. Some conservative Christian groups in the United States attacked the Potter books as
bordering on sacrilegious or devil worship. However, as religion expert
Michael Ostling commented before a 2001 meeting of
the American Academy of Religion, "the stories are spiritually benign and indicate how thoroughly magic and witchcraft have lost their meaning in today's world,"
as quoted in the Christian Century.
Ostling quoted Charles Colson as characterizing the
magic in Rowling's books as "purely mechanical, as opposed to occultic."
In Queen's Quarterly psychologist Benoit Virole
wrote: "Rowling has fashioned an ongoing narrative quest in the classical
tradition, but one that is particularly suited to the way today's children
mentally conjure a literary adventure." Virole noted that
"all the structures of a video game are integrated into Rowling's . . .
writing," including a "ready-made closed world, well-defined units of
time, well-defined places with their trappings differentiated like stage
settings, gains and losses of power, the construction and collapse of alliances,
projective identification with the principal characters, [and] cliff-hangers
pointing to the next product."
Virole's attempt to explain Harry Potter's
appeal started with the premise that "To live an exceptional life and to
be the child of an extraordinary, but vanished, couple is a universal fantasy
linked to the Oedipus complex." He also explained that Rowling's
construction of a virtual universe, "a society with its own rules and
structures," appeals to children, and that her writing style,
"stringing together short narrative sequences laid out in a determinate
and clearly defined spatiotemporal sequence" is perfect for a generation
"raised on a constant flux of images and for whom quickness of mental
picture-painting and focus on action" are key. Like other myths, he noted,
Potter's tale is that of "an existential journey through a symbolic world."
While critics continued to
debate the books' merits and decipher their appeal, Rowling's series continued, becoming a global obsession.
In Edinburgh, Scotland, city officials even debated
whether to erect a statue in Rowling's honor. As far
as Potter's future, according to January
Online, Rowling told an audience composed mainly of young fans at the
Edinburgh International Book Festival in August 2004: "He will survive to
book seven, mainly because I don't want to be strangled by you lot, but I don't want to say
whether he grows any older than that." After Rowling admitted in October
2004 that another character in the series would die in the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,
London bookies placed odds on fatality that ranged from scary for Hogwarts'
headmaster Dumbledore (4 to 1) to unlikely for Potter himself (33 to 1).
Periodicals
Christian
Century, December
5, 2001.
Europe Intelligence Wire, August
24, 2004.
People, January 14,
2002.
Queen's
Quarterly, Fall 2004.
Variety, August 9, 2004.
World
Literature Today,
Winter 2002.
Online
"J. K. Rowling," January Online,http://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/jkrowling.html (January 2,
2005).
"Meet J. K.
Rowling," Scholastic Web site,http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/author
(January 2, 2005).
Britannica
Concise Encyclopedia: Joanne
Kathleen Rowling
(born July 31, 1965, Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol, Eng.) British author, creator of the popular and critically acclaimed Harry Potter series. The first
book in the seven-volume series, Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's
Stone (also published
as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), was published in 1997. Featuring vivid descriptions and an imaginative story line, the book
followed the unlikely hero Harry Potter, a lonely orphan who
discovers that he is actually a wizard. The book was an
immediate success, appealing to both children (its intended
audience) and adults. Succeeding
volumes — Harry
Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets (1998), Harry Potter
and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), Harry Potter and the Goblet
of Fire (2000), Harry Potter
and the Order of the Phoenix (2003), and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood
Prince (2005) — were also
best sellers. In 2007 the final book
in the series, Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published. Rowling was credited with renewing
children's interest in reading, and in 2001 she was appointed OBE (Officer of the British Empire). That year also
marked the release of the film adaptation of the first Harry Potter book. It became
one of the top-grossing movies in the world, and subsequent volumes were also
made into highly successful films.
For more information on Joanne
Kathleen Rowling, visit Britannica.com.
Spotlight: J.K. Rowling
The wait is over. The 6th volume of J.K. Rowling's
Harry Potter series – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
– was released to the public as of midnight last night, amid fanfare and
celebration galore. Bookstores everywhere had special parties and events
leading up to the release, and there were record-breaking advance sales of the
book. The American publishers of the book, Scholastic,
turned the manuscript over to the National Braille Press early, so special Braille
editions could be prepared. This time there will be only a three-day wait for
blind readers who had to wait three weeks for the earlier Harry Potter books.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
Rowling, J. K.
(Joanne Kathleen Rowling) (rôl'ĭing, rōl'–), 1965–, English author known for her popular children's
books, b. Chipping Sodbury, grad. Exeter
Univ. (1986). While unemployed she completed her first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
(1996), a vivid tale of a young wizard and his friends, adversaries, and
teachers at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Published in the United
States as Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer's Stone (1998, film 2001), it attracted a huge international
readership. The rest of the books in the series (and films based on them) soon
followed—Harry Potter and the Chamber
of Secrets (1998, film 2002), Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999, film 2004), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
(2000, film 2005), Harry Potter and
the Order of the Phoenix (2003, film 2007), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
(2007)—making Rowling one of the world's most successful and wealthiest
authors. Her books, which appeal to both young and adult audiences, have sold
in the multimillions, been translated into more than 60 languages, and are
widely credited with reviving the practice of reading in many children. Under
fanciful pseudonyms Rowling has published two books related to the series, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch
through the Ages (both: 2001).
Bibliography
See biographies by S. Smith (2001), W. Compson
(2003), C. A. Kirk (2003), C. C. Lovett (2003), and C. A. Sexton (2005);
studies by J. Granger (2002), G. L. Anatol, ed.
(2003), E. Heilman, ed. (2003), J. Houghton (2003),
G. Wiener, ed. (2003), D. Baggett and S. E. Klein, ed. (2004), G. W. Beahm (2004), and M. Lackey, ed. (2006).
Wikipedia: J. K. Rowling
Joanne
"Jo" Murray née Rowling OBE
(born 31 July 1965),[2] who
writes under the pen name J. K. Rowling,[3] is an English
writer and author of the Harry Potter fantasy series.
The Potter books have gained
worldwide attention, won multiple awards, and sold over 325 million books.[4] The last
four books have been consecutively the fastest-selling books in history,[5] a record which
the final book currently holds.[6]
The 2007 Sunday Times Rich List estimated
Rowling's fortune at £545 million, ranking her as the
136th richest person and the thirteenth richest woman in Britain.[7] In 2006, Forbes named
Rowling the second-richest female entertainer in the world[8] and ranked her as the
forty-eighth most powerful celebrity of 2007.[9]
Rowling has parlayed Harry Potter into a global brand worth an estimated $15 billion.[10]
She has also gained recognition for sparking an interest in reading among the
young at a time when children were thought to be abandoning the book for the
computer and the television.[11] She has become a notable philanthropist, supporting such charities as Comic
Relief, the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain
and One Parent Families.
Although
she writes under the pen name "J. K.
Rowling", pronounced rolling
(IPA: /ˈroʊlɪŋ/),[12]
she actually has no middle name making her full name simply "Joanne
Rowling". Before publishing her first book, London-based
publisher, Bloomsbury feared that the target audience
of young boys might be reluctant to buy books written by a female author. It
requested that Rowling use two initials, rather than reveal her first name. As
she had no middle name, she chose K. for Kathleen as the second initial of her
pseudonym, from her paternal grandmother, Kathleen Ada
Bulgen Rowling.[13] The name
Kathleen has never been part of her real name.[14] Following
her marriage, her official legal name is Joanne Murray.[15] She calls herself
"Jo" and claims, "No one ever called me 'Joanne' when I was
young, unless they were angry".[16]
Rowling was born to Peter James Rowling and Anne
Rowling née Volant on 31 July 1965
at Yate, Gloucestershire, England, UK miles ( km)
northeast of Bristol.[2][17][18] Her
sister Dianne (Di) was born at their home when
Rowling was 23 months old.[17] The family
moved to the nearby village Winterbourne when Rowling
was four. She attended St Michael's Primary School,[19]
a school founded almost 200 years ago by famed abolitionist
William Wilberforce[20] and education reformer Hannah More. Her elderly headmaster at St. Michaels, Alfred
Dunn, was claimed as the inspiration for the Harry Potter character Albus
Dumbledore.[21][22]
As a child, Rowling enjoyed writing fantasy
stories, which she often read to her sister. "I can still remember me
telling her a story in which she fell down a rabbit hole and was fed
strawberries by the rabbit family inside it," she recalls, "Certainly
the first story I ever wrote down (when I was five or six) was about a rabbit
called Rabbit. He got the measles and was visited by his friends, including a
giant bee called Miss Bee".[12]
At the age of nine, Rowling moved to Tutshill, near Chepstow,
South Wales.[17]
When she was a young teen, her great aunt, who Rowling said "taught
classics and approved of a thirst for knowledge, even of a questionable
kind", gave her a very old copy of Jessica Mitford's autobiography, Hons and Rebels.[23] Mitford
became Rowling's heroine and she subsequently read all of her books.[24]
She attended secondary school at
Wyedean School and College.
Rowling has said of her adolescence, "Hermione is
loosely based on me. She's a caricature of me when I was 11, which I'm not
particularly proud of".[25] Sean Harris, her best friend in
the Upper Sixth owned a turquoise Ford
Anglia, which she says inspired the one in her books. "Ron Weasley isn't a living portrait of Sean, but he really is
very Sean-ish."[26] Of her musical tastes of the
time, she said "My favorite group in the world
is The Smiths. And when I was going through a punky phase, it was The Clash".[27]
Rowling
read for a BA in French and Classics
at the University of Exeter, which she says was a
"bit of a shock" as she "was expecting to be amongst lots of
similar people–thinking radical thoughts." Once she made friends with
"some like-minded people" she says she began to enjoy herself.[28]
With a year of study in Paris, Rowling moved to London to work as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International.
In 1990, while she was on a four-hour-delayed train trip from Manchester to London, the idea for a story of a young boy
attending a school of wizardry "came fully formed" into her mind."I really don't know where the idea came
from," she told the Boston Globe, "It started with Harry, then all
these characters and situations came flooding into my head."[29][17] When she had
reached her Clapham Junction flat, she began to write
immediately.[17][30] However, in December of that
year, Rowling’s mother succumbed to a 10-year battle with the condition multiple sclerosis.[17] Rowling
commented, “I was writing Harry Potter
at the moment my mother died. I had never told her about Harry Potter".[31]
Rowling then moved to Porto,
Portugal to teach English as a foreign language.[24]
While there, she married Portuguese television journalist Jorge Arantes on 16 October 1992.[32] They had one child,
Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes, born 27
July 1993 in Portugal[32]
who was named after Jessica Mitford.
They separated in November 1993. Their divorce became
final on 26 June, 1995.[32][33]
In December 1994, Rowling and her daughter moved
to be near her sister in Edinburgh, Scotland.[17]
Unemployed and living on state benefits, she completed her first novel. She did
her work in numerous cafés (e.g. Nicolson's Café and
Elephant House Café), whenever she could get Jessica to fall asleep.[17][34] There was a rumour
that she wrote in local cafés to escape from her unheated flat, but in a 2001 BBC interview Rowling remarked, "I am not stupid
enough to rent an unheated flat in Edinburgh in midwinter. It had heating."[35] Instead,
as she stated on the American TV program A&E
Biography, one of the reasons she wrote in cafés was because taking her
baby out for a walk around was the way to make her child fall asleep, and as
soon as she was asleep, she would go into the nearest café and write.[34]
Main article: Harry
Potter
In 1995, Rowling
finished her manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on an old
manual typewriter.[36]
Upon the enthusiastic response of Bryony Evans, a reader who had been asked to
review the book’s first three chapters, the Fulham-based Christopher
Little Literary Agents agreed to represent Rowling in her quest for a
publisher. The book was handed to twelve publishing houses, all of which
rejected it.[37] A year later she was
finally given the green light (and a £1500 advance) by editor Barry Cunningham
from the small publisher Bloomsbury.[38][37] The decision to take
Rowling on was apparently largely due to Alice Newton, the eight-year-old
daughter of the company’s chairman, who was given the first chapter to review
by her father, and immediately demanded the next.[39]
Although Bloomsbury agreed to publish the book, Cunningham says that he advised
Rowling to get a day job, since she had little chance of making money in
children’s books.[40]
Soon after, Rowling received an £8000 grant from the Scottish
Arts Council to enable her to continue writing.[36][41] The following spring, an
auction was held in the United States for the rights to publish the novel, and
was won by Scholastic Inc., for $105,000. Rowling has
said she “nearly died” when she heard the news.[42]
In June 1997, Bloomsbury published Philosopher’s Stone with an initial
print-run of one thousand copies, five hundred of which were distributed to
libraries. Today, such copies are valued between £16,000 and £25,000.[43]
Five months later, the book won its first award,
a Nestlé Smarties Book Prize.
In February, the novel won the prestigious British Book Award
for Children’s Book of the Year, and later, the Children’s Book Award. In
October 1998, Scholastic published Philosopher’s
Stone in the US under the title of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: a change Rowling claims
she now regrets and would have fought if she had been in a better position at
the time.[14][36]
In
December 1999, the third novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, won the Smarties Prize, making Rowling the first person to win the
award three times running.[36]
She later withdrew the fourth Harry
Potter novel from contention to allow other books a fair chance. In
January 2000, Prisoner of Azkaban
won the inaugural Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year award,
though it lost the Book of the Year prize to Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf.[44]
The title of the seventh and final Harry Potter book was revealed 21 December 2006 to be Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows.[45] On 1 February 2007 Rowling wrote on a
bust in her hotel room at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh that she had written the seventh book in that room
on 11 January 2007.[46] Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
was released on July 21 2007
(0:00 BST) and became the fastest-selling book of all
time.[6]
All seven volumes of the "Harry Potter" series, one
for each of Harry’s school years, have broken sales records. The last four have
been, consecutively, the fastest-selling books in history, grossing more in
their opening 24 hours than blockbuster films.[36][47] The series, totalling 4,195
pages,[48]
has been translated into 65 languages.[49]
In October 1998, Warner Bros.
purchased the film rights to the first two novels for a seven-figure sum.[36]
A film version of Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released on 16 November 2001 and Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets on 15 November 2002.[36]
Both were directed by Chris
Columbus. The 4 June 2004
film of Harry Potter
and the Prisoner of Azkaban was directed by Alfonso
Cuarón. The fourth film, Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire, was directed by yet another new director, Mike Newell. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released on 11 July 2007. David Yates is the director, and
Michael Goldenberg its screenwriter, having taken over
the position from Steven Kloves.
Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince is in pre-production, scheduled for release on 21 November 2008.[50]
David Yates will direct again, and Kloves will return
to screenwrite it.[51] Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is
expected to be released sometime in 2010.[52]
In contrast to the treatment of most authors by
Hollywood studios, Warner Bros took considerable notice of Rowling's desires
and thoughts, as she was able to secure it in the contract. One of her
principal stipulations was the films be shot in Britain with an all-British
cast, which has been adhered to strictly.[53] In an
unprecedented move, Rowling also demanded that Coca-Cola,
the victor in the race to tie-in their products to the
film series, donate $18 million to the American charity Reading
is Fundamental, as well as a number of community charity programs.[54]
The first four films were scripted by Steve Kloves; Rowling assisted him in the writing process,
ensuring that his scripts did not contradict future books in the series. She
has said that she told him more about the later books than anybody else (prior
to their release), but not everything.[55] She has also said that she told Alan Rickman (Snape) and Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) certain
secrets about their characters before they were revealed in the books.[56] She was
also asked by Daniel Radcliffe
(Harry Potter) if Harry died and Rowling answered him
by saying, "You have a death scene", thereby not explicitly answering
the question.[57]
Steven Spielberg was approached to direct the first
film, but dropped out. The press has repeatedly claimed that Rowling played a
role in his departure, but Rowling stated that she has no say in who directs
the films and would not have vetoed Spielberg if she had.[58] Rowling's first choice for the
director had been Monty Python member Terry
Gilliam, as she is a fan of his work. Warner Bros. wanted a more family
friendly film, and eventually they settled on Chris
Columbus.[59]
Rowling has stated that she plans to continue
writing after the publication of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She declared in
a December 2005 interview that she will most likely not use a new pen name as
the press would quickly discover her true identity.[60]
In 2006, Rowling revealed that she had finished
writing a few short stories and another children's book (a "political
fairy story") about a monster, aimed at a younger audience than Harry Potter readers.[61]
In
2001, Rowling purchased a luxurious 19th century estate house, Killiechassie House, on the banks of the River Tay, near Aberfeldy, in Perth and Kinross, Scotland.[67]
Rowling also owns a home in Merchiston, Edinburgh, and a £4.5 million ($8
million) Georgian
house in Kensington,
West London,[68] on a street with
24-hour security.[69]
On
26 December 2001, Rowling married
Neil Michael Murray (born 30 June 1971),
an anaesthetist,
in a private ceremony at her Aberfeldy home.[67]
This was a second marriage for both Rowling and Murray, as Murray had
previously been married to Dr. Fiona Duncan in 1996. Murray and Duncan separated in 1999 and divorced in the summer of 2001. Rowling and Murray's son David Gordon Rowling Murray
was born on 24 March
2003.[70] Shortly
after Rowling began writing Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince she
took a break from working on the novel to care for him in his early infancy.[71] Rowling's youngest child,
daughter Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray, to whom she dedicated Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was born 23 January 2005.[72]
Rowling
is a member of the Church of Scotland. She once said, "I believe in God, not
magic." Early on she felt that if readers knew of her Christian beliefs,
they would be able to "guess what is coming in the books."[73] Rowling has stated that she
struggles with her own beliefs. In an interview with the Today Show in July
2007, she said, "...until we reached Book Seven, views of what happens
after death and so on...would give away a lot of what was coming. So … yes, my
belief and my struggling with religious belief and so on I think is quite
apparent in this book."[74]
Rowling
lost a court fight to ban publication of a photograph of her young son.[15] Forbes has named
Rowling as the first person to become a U.S.-dollar billionaire by writing
books.[75] When first listed as a billionaire
by Forbes in 2004, Rowling disputed the calculations and said she has
plenty of money, but was not a billionaire.[76]
Rowling
contributes substantially to charities that combat poverty and social inequality.
She also gives to organizations that aid children, one parent families, and
multiple sclerosis research. Rowling said, "I think you have a moral
responsibility when you've been given far more than you need,
to do wise things with it and give intelligently."[65]
Rowling,
once a single parent herself, is now President of One Parent Families.[77]
Rowling has supported the charity since 2000 when she became its first
Ambassador.[78]
According
to The
Guardian, Rowling is a close friend of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and
his wife, Sarah, with whom she collaborated on a book of children's stories to
aid the charity One Parent Families.[79]
Rowling, along with Nelson Mandela, Al Gore, and Alan Greenspan, wrote an introduction to a collection of
Gordon Brown's speeches, the proceeds of which are donated to the Jennifer
Brown Research Laboratory.[80]
In
2001, the UK fundraiser Comic Relief asked three bestselling British authors – cookery
writer and TV presenter Delia Smith, Bridget Jones creator Helen Fielding, and Rowling – to submit booklets related to
their most famous works for publication. The proceeds go towards combating
poverty and social inequality across the globe. Rowling's two booklets, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages, are ostensibly
facsimiles of books found in the Hogwarts library, and are written under the names of their
fictional authors, Newt Scamander and Kennilworthy
Whisp. Since going on sale in March, 2001, the books
have raised £15.7 million ($30 million US) for the fund. The £10.8 million ($20
million US) raised outside the UK has been channelled into a newly created
International Fund for Children and Young People in Crisis. Rowling has also
personally given £22 million to Comic Relief.[68]
Rowling
has contributed money and support for research and treatment of multiple sclerosis,
from which her mother died in 1990. Rowling said this death heavily affected
her writing[81][31]
and that she introduced much more detail about Harry's loss in the first book,
because she knew about how it felt.[82] In 2006, Rowling contributed a
substantial sum toward the creation of a new Centre for Regenerative Medicine
at Edinburgh
University: For reasons unknown, Scotland has the highest rate of MS in
the world.[83]
On
1 August and 2 August 2006 she read alongside Stephen King and John Irving at Radio City
Music Hall in New York City. Profits from the event were donated to the
Haven Foundation, a charity that aids artists and performers left uninsurable
and unable to work, and the medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières.
In May 2007, Rowling gave US$495,000 to a reward fund of over $4.5 million for the
safe return of a young British girl, Madeleine McCann, who was kidnapped in Portugal.[84][85]
In January 2006, Rowling went to Bucharest to raise funds for the Children's High Level
Group, an organization devoted to enforcing the human rights of mentally ill children
in Eastern Europe, where mental institutions have been known to use caged beds.[86]
- In
June 2000, Queen Elizabeth II made Rowling an officer of the Order
of the British Empire.[36]
- In
July 2000, the University of Exeter (of which she is a graduate)
awarded her an honorary DLitt degree.[87]
- In
April 2006, the asteroid (43844) Rowling was named in her honour.[88] The name was submitted to
the International Astronomical Union by astronomer Dr.
Mark Hammergren, who had been a fan of the Harry
Potter series since 2004.[89]
- In
May 2006, the newly-discovered Pachycephalosaurid dinosaur Dracorex
hogwartsia, currently at the Children's
Museum in Indianapolis, was named in honour of her world.[90]
- In
June 2006, the British public named Rowling “the greatest living British
writer” in a poll by The Book Magazine. Rowling topped the poll,
receiving nearly three times as many votes as the second-place author,
fantasy writer Terry Pratchett.[91]
- In
July 2006 Rowling received a Doctor of Laws (LLD) honorary degree from University
of Aberdeen for her "significant contribution to many
charitable causes" and "her many contributions to society".[92]
- At
the end of a Harry Potter Blue Peter Special (broadcast 20 July 2007), J.K. Rowling's third appearance on the show, she
was presented, by Gethin Jones, a Gold Blue Peter Badge.[93]
- In
October 2007,
Rowling received a Pride of Britain award for her inspiration to single
mothers and aspiring authors.[94]
Copyrights:
Who2 Biography. Copyright © 1998-2008 by Who2, LLC. All rights reserved. See the J.K. Rowling biography from Who2. Read more
Actor. Copyright © 2006
All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved. Read more
Biography. © 2006 through a
partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
Spotlight. © 1999-2008 by Answers Corporation.
All rights reserved. Read more
Columbia
Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia
University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article
"J. K. Rowling". Read more
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