What did Joan Rowling write besides Harry Potter? The difficult fate of Harry Potter

J.K. Rowling

Joanne Rowling

Born July 31, 1965 in Yete (Gloucestershire, England).
She attended St. Michael's Primary School, founded by William Wilberforce and education reformer Hannah More, and then Wydin High School, where her mother worked.
In 1982 she entered the University of Exeter, from which she graduated in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in French and classical philology. After graduating from university, she worked as a secretary in the research department of Amnesty International in London.
In 1990, she began work on the first Harry Potter book. Soon she moved to Portugal, where she taught English language, and at night she worked on a book, which she completed in 1995. The manuscript was sent to 12 publishing houses - and all 12 refused. In June 1997, Bloomsbury published The Philosopher's Stone with an initial print run of 1,000 copies, 500 of which were distributed to libraries.
Five months later, the book won its first award, the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, followed by the British Book Award for Children's Book of the Year, and later the Children's Book Award. In 1998, an auction was held in the United States for the rights to publish the novel, which was won by the publishing house Scholastic Inc.
The sequel to the first novel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was published in July 1998, and the third novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, was published in December 1999. The fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was released simultaneously in the UK and US in July 2000 and broke sales records in both countries. The seven-book series about the boy wizard Harry Potter, which Rowling has been working on since the early 1990s, has been translated into 67 languages ​​and has sold more than 450 million copies. The last four books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling literary works in history.
Currently, Harry Potter is a global brand valued at several billion dollars. In 2004, Forbes named Rowling the first person to become a dollar billionaire through writing.
In 2000, Rowling created charitable foundation which aims to fight poverty and social inequality. The writer doesn't just donate large sums for various needs, she is involved in charity work seriously and professionally. Her foundation helps children by rescuing children from orphanages in poor countries in Europe - mainly Eastern Europe.
The author of the world-famous novels about the young wizard Harry Potter donated £10 million to the University of Edinburgh to create a scientific and medical center that would specialize in research multiple sclerosis. According to the writer, by sponsoring such research, she hopes that many people will have a chance to be cured.

Joanne Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 in Chipping Sothebury, Gloucestershire, England. Her sister, Dee, was born two years later. Rowling loved to tell stories with early childhood and wrote her first story when she was 5 or 6 years old - it was a story about a rabbit named Rabbit who had measles and his friends came to visit him with a giant bee named Miss Bee. She moved twice as a child. Both times to towns near Bristol: first to Eith, then to Winterbourne. The family moved again when she was nine years old - to Tutshill. She visited primary school in Tutshill and high school and Viedine.

At that time she was quiet, freckled, nearsighted and terribly unathletic. Her favorite subjects are English and other languages. She used to tell stories to her friends - where they all performed brave and heroic deeds that they would not dare to do in real life.

She went to Exeter University straight after school and studied French, at the urging of her parents, who said she could make a career as a bilingual secretary. She spent several years studying at the university and working as “the worst secretary in the world.”

In 1991, at the age of 26, she went to Portugal to teach English. She says she liked it. She gave lessons in the afternoon and evening, and composed in the morning. During this time, she began working on her third novel (the first two had been dismissed as "very bad"). A new book was about a boy who discovered he was a wizard and ended up in a wizarding school. In Portugal she met and married a Portuguese journalist. Their daughter, Jessica, was born in 1993.

After the divorce, Rowling and her daughter moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, closer to her younger sister Dee. Rowling set herself the goal of completing the Harry novel before starting work as a French teacher, and, of course, trying to publish it. She wrote on the cafe table while Jessica was sleeping. The Scottish Arts Council gave her a grant to complete the book and, after a number of rejections, she eventually sold Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to Bloomsbury (UK) for US$4,000.

When the first Harry Potter book was published, the publisher insisted on writing JK Rowling's name on the cover only with her initials - such a trick should not scare away boys, who mostly do not like books by female authors, from buying them. And since the writer did not have a middle name from birth, she chose the name of her grandmother Kathleen for her initials, and since then she has been known as J. K. Rowling.

A few months later, Arthur A. Levin/Teaching Literature buys the American rights to the book for enough money to enable her to quit teaching. The book was published in the UK in June 1997 (at the time of writing the first edition of this book has sold £12,000/$20,000). At that moment the confession came. Harry Potter wins the British Book of the Year and Smarties Prize. Retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the book was published in the US in September 1998. The next, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was published in the UK in July 1998, and in the US in June 1999. The third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban "was published in the UK in July 1999, and in the US in September 1999.

In 1999, Rowling became an international literary sensation when the first three books of the Harry Potter series reached the top 3 positions on the New York Times bestseller list - achieving similar success in the UK. In the summer of 2000, the first three books had sold over 35 million copies, in 35 languages, valued at approximately $480 million. In July 2000, the first printing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was 5.3 million copies with advance orders of over 1.8 million. "Order of the Phoenix", "Half-Blood Prince" and "Deathly Hallows" also became leaders in terms of circulation and box office receipts. The total circulation of all seven books about the adventures of Harry Potter was 400 million copies. In 2000, Warner Brothers released a film based on the first book about Harry Potter; in 2011, the eighth and final film premiered - at the whim of the filmmakers, the final novel was divided into two parts. All eight films occupied the leading positions in box office collections all over the world.

Rowling says she wrote Harry Potter when “I was feeling really bad and needed to achieve something. Without the challenge, I would have gone crazy.” Nowadays, the story about Harry Potter and his struggle with the Dark Lord is one of the most popular children's books and already bears the proud title of “children's book of the millennium,” although, of course, it is difficult to consider it entirely for children.

The author of the most successful bestseller in the history of children's literature and exceptional literary work, according to the Times newspaper, was born in the English city of Yate (Gloucestershire) on the last day of July 1965.

Her full name JK Murray Rowling, although the writer began to sign her name as JK Kathleen Rowling, taking her middle name from her grandmother.

An unremarkable childhood, the future writer colored her fairy tales about animals; her first character, Rabbit, appeared when Joan was about six years old. The first listener of fantastic stories was her sister Dee, who was born 23 months after Joan.

The situation in the family could not be called happy: the mother was seriously ill, and the relationship with the father did not go well (the writer still does not communicate with him). After several moves, the Rowling family settled in Tutshill, where Joan attended primary and secondary school. The girl’s more than modest appearance (freckles, myopia and an unathletic figure) was compensated by her ability to tell incredibly fascinating stories to her peers, who were the main characters performing brave and respectable feats.

Joan continued her education at the University of Exeter, where she studied French. The future author of Harry Potter spent several years of her life studying and working as “the worst of secretaries.” At the age of 26, Joan went to Portugal to take up teaching, to which she devoted the second half of the day, and the morning was devoted to a new novel (the third in a row). The writer defined the first two books as “very bad.”

The new story was about a boy who one day found out that he was a wizard and miraculously ended up in a school of magic. At the same time, in Portugal, Joan met her future husband, journalist Jorge Arantes, and as a result of their union, their daughter Jessica was born. Biography family life only lasted 13 months and was not a happy one.

Miracles begin

In December 1993, JK Rowling, with her daughter and three chapters of a book about a little wizard, moved to Scotland to live with her younger sister, where she huddled with her daughter in a tiny rented room, vegetating on unemployment benefits. But the fascinating world of the book about an orphan boy made it possible to forget about an unsettled life and a lack of money. But the magical story miraculously came true, and Joan received a modest grant from the Scottish Arts Committee in order to complete the writing of the book.

The plot plan consisted of seven books, each of which covered the next year of Harry's studies at Hogwarts. The first, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was written soon after. Sister Dianne started reading first and has always been a fan. wonderful story, but when the book was offered to publishers, all refused, with the exception of one - the British Bloomberry, which bought the work for $4,000.

JK Rowling, talking about her youth, said that she was not a confident person, but she always knew that someday she would be able to surprise the world with a magical story. The fact that only one publishing house agreed to publish the book does not bother the writer. She is confident that even the refusal of all publishers without exception would not shake her determination in her actions.

"Harry Potter" - a book for all times

The great idea of ​​writing a book about a boy who goes to study at a witchcraft school arose in the mind of JK Rowling during a trip. She turned the writer’s whole life upside down, as evidenced by her biography. Under the sound of wheels, “magical” ideas, faculties, ghosts, teachers and objects arose. With a solid foundation in life consisting of her daughter Jessica, a dilapidated typewriter and interesting idea, Joan managed to rebuild her own life.

As J. K. Rowling herself said in one of her interviews: “When I realized that the book was turning out, I felt joy - the purest, without impurities. This will be a real work that will appear on bookstore shelves!” That's exactly what happened.

In June 1997, the book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in the UK. The rights to the book were bought by the publishing house Arthur Levin/Educational Literature, and by the time the first edition of the book was written, the amount from sales was $20,000. The author of the book received unprecedented recognition. HP and the Philosopher's Stone won the Book of the Year and Smarties Prize awards in Britain in 1997. The book was published in 1998 in the USA under the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Two more books will be published in the UK over the next two years: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Thus, at the end of the millennium, Rowling’s books become a global literary sensation. The first three works occupy the top three positions on the bestseller lists.

From 2000 to 2007, the list of books about the boy-sorcerer was replenished with four more parts: “Horse and the Goblet of Fire”, “Horse and the Order of the Phoenix”, “Horse and the Half-Blood Prince”, “Horse and the Deathly Hallows”, which also became leaders in circulation and collections.

In 2000, Warner Bros. released a film based on the first book, and 11 years later the world saw the last film adaptation about Harry Potter. Absolutely all films were wildly successful and were in first place in the list of viewing leaders.

Money and popularity

Along with JK Rowling's success came material well-being– she entered the top five most successful women in the world. She is Britain's best-selling author, with sales of more than £550 million.

Books in the amount of 300 million copies were swept off the shelves of bookstores, eight films grossed over $5 billion at the box office, and an asteroid appeared in mysterious space, named after the “greatest living British author” - JK Rowling. Five years, it was during this period that the writer Rowling went from a miserable existence on social benefits to the status of a multimillionaire.

In 2007, the writer’s biography was supplemented with the title “Person of the Year,” Times magazine noted the social, political and moral inspiration that Rowling’s books were able to give to their fans. The most influential woman in the country - Rowling received this status; she refuted claims about her wealth: “I have a lot of money, but I’m not the richest,” the writer spent more than 160 million dollars on charity.

Non-random appearance of “Random Vacancy”

The first two novels, which JK Rowling never tried to publish, were written for adults. AND book called "The Casual Vacancy", which was published in 2012, was written exclusively for an adult audience. In it, Rowling tried to move away from her usual fairy-tale understanding of the world and immerse the reader in a harsh atmosphere, devoid of illusions.

The book caused a storm of the most opposite emotions, but it keeps everyone, without exception, impressed - the first hundred pages of the book cause bewilderment, and then it is impossible to put it down without reading it to the end. Many readers agree that the book is too rude, but this is a kind of protest against the inertia and vileness of a society that is built on setups, sex and violence. And this is the merit of the book, one can call “The Casual Vacancy” a sort of “Dostoevschina” in the British way and, of course, this book deserves reading and is a worthy event in world literature.

The Cuckoo's Calling and Robert Galbraith

In April 2013, Robert Galbraith’s debut crime novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling, appeared on bookstore shelves. The book received recognition from other authors and positive reviews readers. But soon suspicions arose that the novel was too good for a debut author, and in the course of simple investigations and linguistic analyzes it turned out that The novel The Cuckoo's Calling is written by JK Rowling, who published it under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith. According to the author himself, she was given great pleasure publishing a book without having to live up to public expectations and “it made it possible to get objective feedback.” JK Rowling also confirmed her intention to continue writing and create a new series, but under a pseudonym.

JK Rowling's personal biography began to develop happily in 2001, when she married Neil Murray for the second time and gave birth to a son, David, and a daughter, Mackenzie. Now the family lives in Edinburgh, and the British writer dedicates all her works to her family and does not intend to stop at the results achieved.

Date of Birth: 31.07.1965

She was born on July 31, 1965 in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England (near Bristol) to Anne and Pete Rowling. Her father worked as an engineer at the Rolls-Royce plant.

When Joan was four years old her family moved to Winterbourne, also near Bristol. Joan grew up as a dreamy child and often came up with incredible fantastic stories. She loved to read and wrote her first story when she was 6 years old - a story about a rabbit named Rabbit who had measles and his friends came to visit him with a giant bee named Miss Bee.

When she was nine, she and her family settled in Tatshiel, a small village near Chipstow in Wales. At that time, she was a quiet girl whose favorite subject was English. She loved to tell stories to her friends where they were heroes and performed brave deeds that they would not dare to do in real life.

When Joan was 15 years old, her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. IN graduating class Joan decided to go to Oxford. But, despite the fact that she successfully passed the entrance exams, she never became a student at a prestigious university. In the same 1983, Joanna entered the French department at the University of Exeter in Devon at the insistence of her parents.

After graduating from university, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree, Rowling moved to London, where she changed several jobs.

On December 30, 1990, at the age of 45, her mother died, after which Joan decided to go to Portugal to teach English. There she began writing her Harry Potter novel. Prior to this, Joan had worked on her first two novels, which she later considered a failure and never published. In Portugal, in August 1992, Joan married journalist Jorge Arantes. In 1993, their daughter Jessica was born and in the same year Joan divorced her husband and moved with her daughter to Edinburgh, Scotland.

At this time, Rowling works as a French teacher and continues to write a book about a boy wizard. It was not possible to sell the book; Rowling received many refusals until the Bloomsbury publishing house bought the book “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” for only $4,000. Rowling was soon given a grant by the Scottish Arts Council to complete the book. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in June 1997 and was voted the best children's book of the year in the UK. By the summer of 2000, the first three books had sold more than 35 million copies and been translated into 35 languages.

In 1998, the film studio Warner Bros. bought the film rights to Rowling's first two Harry Potter novels. The Harry Potter series of novels has been translated into more than 60 languages, including Russian. More than 250 million copies of books have been sold worldwide.

The success of the series among readers, as well as the films based on the novels, brought Rowling worldwide fame and fortune. Since 2004, JK Rowling has been the richest woman in the UK. Forbes magazine in 2008 estimated her fortune at $1 billion.

In 2001, Joan Rowling married her friend, doctor Neil Murray. In March 2003, the couple had a son, David Gordon Rowling Murray, and in January 2005, a daughter, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray.

Character information:

The writer's real name is Joanna Murray Rowling, not Joanne Kathleen Rowling. Before its first publication, the publisher feared that boys would be reluctant to buy a book written by a woman. Therefore, Rowling was asked to use initials instead of her full name. At the same time, the publishing house wanted the initials to consist of two letters. Rowling chose her grandmother's name, Kathleen, for her middle initial.

In Winterbourne, he and his sister were friends with children named Potter. She says that she always liked this last name and preferred it to her own because the children always teased her about her last name, saying that it looked like rowling-rolling pins.

Rowling is actively involved in charity work. In particular, she supports the Single Parents Foundation and the Foundation for Research into Multiple Sclerosis, the disease from which her mother died.

The first Harry Potter book was written on an old typewriter.

Asteroid No. 43844, at the suggestion of Chicago astronomer Mark Hammergren, who discovered it, will be named Rowling in honor of the famous writer.

Writer's Awards

Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, 1997/1998/1999 - gold medal in the category for children aged 9-11 years.
- Children's Book Award, 1998/1999/2000/2001
- The Bookseller Author of the Year Award, 1998/1999
- Order of the British Empire, 2001
- Prince of Asturias Prize, 2003 (Spain) (Rowling Prize is not listed among the laureates on the official website of the Rowling Prize)
- British Book awards Book of the Year, 2003/2006
- Edinburgh Prize, 2008 (for contribution to the life of the city and special achievements in the field of art)
- literary prize British Book awards (Nibbie), 2008 - for outstanding achievements (London).
- Order of the Legion of Honor, 2009 - the highest award in France, which was personally presented to her by French President Nicolas Sarkozy
- , (2010) - Danish literary prize named after H. H. Andersen

Bibliography

Harry Potter series :
- (1997)
- (1998)
- (1999)

Celebrity biographies

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31.07.15 12:40

The billionaire writer who gave the world Harry Potter has sold her books about the boy wizard with a circulation of more than 400 million copies. The biography of JK Rowling, who is celebrating her fiftieth birthday today, is quite remarkable: a poor housewife became one of the most successful women on the planet! Isn't this magic?

Biography of JK Rowling

Almost like Hermione

London's King's Cross station, from which the express train departs for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft, played a huge role in the biography of JK Rowling. It is well known that it was at this large station that inspiration came to the desperate housewife. And on his platform, the romance of Joan’s parents began: English engineer Peter James Rowling met his future wife Anne Wolan. Married in 1965, they became father and mother to Joan (her birthday was July 31 of that year) and Dianne, who is almost two years younger than her sister.

Joan was born near Bristol, and later the family moved to the village of Winterbourne. Already as a schoolgirl, Rowling wrote short fantasy novels - Dianne was her first reader. The writer herself claims that the “nerdy” Hermione is almost her self-portrait. Rowling also had an enviable thirst for knowledge; she passed exams in French and English with “excellent” marks, and in German with “good” marks. But everything was difficult with the parents: my mother was already ill then, and my father did not understand his daughter, who adored Tolkien and Dickens.

Modest secretary

Rowling dreamed of Oxford, but was only able to enter the University of Exeter, and studied for a year in Paris (as an exchange student). She received degrees in philology and French and settled in London. The first job in JK Rowling's biography was the Amnesty International organization: an excellent student and a smart girl got a modest position as a secretary. In a few years she will leave this job and move with her boyfriend to Manchester. It was on the Manchester-London Express in 1990 that strange fantasies about a little magician from a school of witchcraft came into Joan's head.

Depression and unbridled inspiration

Returning home, she immediately started writing a novel. This inspiration coincided with a difficult period in JK Rowling's personal life: in December 1990, her mother was overcome by illness, long years struggling with multiple sclerosis. This is where, in the first book about Harry, the hero’s painful thoughts about the death of his parents come from.

For some time, Joan moved to the capital of Portugal - she taught English and at the same time worked on a book. In Porto, she met her first husband, but the marriage with journalist Arantes lasted just over a year, the British woman remained with her baby daughter and returned to her homeland. At the end of 1993, they ended up in Edinburgh, Scotland. A few chapters of the novel and a handful of personal belongings - that was all the wealth of the future celebrity at that time. No work, no prospects... Rowling was overtaken by depression, but the writer was also able to “use” it in the future: Joan described her heart-sucking melancholy in her third novel (this feeling covers those who encounter dementors).

A bestseller born... in a cafe

The husband tried to take his daughter away, but Rowling protected herself from him with a court order. Why did she write to her Harry in a cafe? She explains it simply: her daughter fell asleep well on fresh air, so they walked. Having put the baby to sleep, the young mother sat down at the table and scribbled sheet after sheet. She lived on benefits, and after finishing The Philosopher's Stone in the summer of 1995, she got a job at a college at the University of Edinburgh.

After unsuccessful attempts to get the novel published (a dozen publishers refused to publish the newcomer’s work), Rowling was finally able to come to an agreement with the editor of the London publishing house, Cunningham: his daughter liked the first chapter, which her dad gave her to read “as a test.” Joan was given an advance of 1.5 thousand pounds. Later, the debutante managed to receive an 8,000-dollar grant, so she could continue to create. Thus began the great epic of writing Potter.

Record after record

The same publisher (Bloomsbury) released a thousand copies to begin with. The book received many awards and was published in the States. Joan was able to buy a house in Edinburgh, where she settled with her daughter. In the summer of 1998, the second book about Harry was published, a year and a half later - “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”; these two books, like the debut, won the prestigious Smarties Award. “Goblet of Fire” was able to break sales records, being released on both sides of the ocean - in the UK and the States (more than 372 thousand on the first day).

Three years later, The Order of the Phoenix was released - everyone will agree that this is the most unassuming of the seven books. Evil tongues claimed: this is a creative crisis. The author did not agree with this statement. In the summer of 2005, another record-breaking book was published - about the Half-Blood Prince. At the beginning of 2007, the seventh part (“Deathly Hallows”) was completed. Its sale began in July of the same year. The first day presented a pleasant surprise: 11 million copies sold instantly.

Now the Harry Potter brand, according to the most conservative estimates, is worth more than $15 billion, and the film adaptations have become commercial hits. Joan controlled the filming process so that there were no gross discrepancies with her books. Although the writer promised that she would no longer publish novels about Harry, she broke her promise. A book about the adult heroes of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child series has been published.

Other projects and charity

In 2012, a novel by a British woman not related to the Potter universe, “The Casual Vacancy,” was published. And although its circulation exceeded a million copies, it did not see the success of books about Harry.

Joan wanted to intrigue the public and published the detective story “The Cuckoo's Calling” under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. No one believed that this was a newcomer, and then one of the writer’s acquaintances revealed her secret. The Deciphered celebrity published the second book in this series (about detective Strike) in the summer of 2014. The Potter spin-off, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, has been successfully filmed. Rowling herself wrote the script for this film with Redmayne and Farrell. Another big-budget franchise awaits us.

Rowling, who herself has experienced poverty to the fullest, devotes a lot of effort and money to charity and takes financial part in research terrible disease, which claimed the life of his mother, multiple sclerosis. She has already donated more than £10 million to these causes. The writer also has her own fund, money from which goes to socially disadvantaged families.

Personal life of JK Rowling

Unsuccessful marriage

Joan got married for the first time in the fall of 1992 - her husband was the Portuguese Jorge Arantes, whom the future billionaire first met in a bar. Personal life JK Rowling turned into a nightmare for a while: Jorge had a hot temper.

While they were still dating, the British woman had a miscarriage, and in July 1993, the couple had a daughter, Jessica Isabelle. When, just over three months later, Joan and Jorge had a huge fight, he kicked his wife out of the house. The divorce was finalized later.

Loving husband and three children

The writer was in no hurry to start a family again - all her time was occupied by creativity. But in December 2001, she became a wife again. Her chosen one is doctor Neil Michael Murray (he is almost five years younger than Joan).