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J. K. Rowling

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Writers and critics

   CAPTION: J.K. Rowling

       Born:      July 31, 1965
                  Yate in South Gloucestershire, England
   Occupation(s): Novelist
     Genre(s):    Fantasy
   Debut work(s): Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
      Website:    http://www.jkrowling.com

   Joanne “Jo” Rowling, OBE (born July 31, 1965) is an English fiction
   writer who writes under the pen name J. K. Rowling. Rowling is most
   famously known as the author of the Harry Potter fantasy series, which
   has gained international attention, won multiple awards, and sold over
   300 million copies worldwide. In February 2004, Forbes magazine
   estimated her fortune at £576 million (just over US$1 billion), making
   her the first person to become a US-dollar billionaire by writing
   books.

Early life

   Joanne Rowling was born in Yate, South Gloucestershire, England on 31
   July 1965, 12 miles northeast of Bristol. Her sister Dianne was born at
   their home when Rowling was almost two years old. The family moved to
   the nearby village Winterbourne when Rowling was four where she
   attended St Michael's Primary School, later moving to Tutshill, near
   Chepstow, South Wales at the age of nine. She attended secondary school
   at Wyedean School and College. In December 1990, Rowling’s mother
   succumbed to a 10-year-long battle with multiple sclerosis. Rowling
   commented, “I was writing Harry Potter at the moment my mother died. I
   had never told her about Harry Potter. Dad called me at seven o’clock
   the next morning and I just knew what had happened before he spoke. … I
   was alternately a wreck and then in total denial. … Barely a day goes
   by when I do not think of her. There would be so much to tell her,
   impossibly much.” Her mother’s passing contributed to her own fear of
   death and its theme in the Harry Potter series.

   After studying French and Classics at the University of Exeter (she had
   previously applied to Oxford but was turned down), with a year of study
   in Paris, she moved to London to work as a researcher and bilingual
   secretary for Amnesty International. During this period, she had the
   idea for a story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry while
   she was on a four-hour delayed-train trip between Manchester and
   London. When she had reached her destination, she began writing
   immediately.

   Rowling then moved to Porto, Portugal to teach English as a foreign
   language. While there, she married Portuguese television journalist
   Jorge Arantes on 16 October 1992. They had one child, Jessica, who was
   named after Rowling’s heroine, Jessica Mitford. They divorced in 1993
   after a fight in which Jorge threw her out of the house.

   In December 1994, Rowling and her daughter moved to be near Rowling’s
   sister in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Unemployed and living on state
   benefits, she completed her first novel. She did much of the work in
   the Elephant House café whenever she could get Jessica to fall asleep.
   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.”

Harry Potter

Harry Potter books

   In 1995, Rowling completed her manuscript for Harry Potter and the
   Philosopher’s Stone on an old manual typewriter. 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. A year later she was finally given the greenlight
   (and a £1500 advance) by editor Barry Cunningham from the small
   publisher Bloomsbury. 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. 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. Soon after, Rowling received an £8000 grant from the Scottish
   Arts Council to enable her to continue writing. The following spring,
   an auction was held in the United States for the rights to publish the
   novel, and was won by Scholastic Inc., who paid Rowling more than
   $100,000. Rowling has said she “nearly died” when she heard the news.
   In June 1997, Bloomsbury published Philosopher’s Stone with an initial
   print run of only one-thousand copies, five-hundred of which were
   distributed to libraries. Today, such copies are each valued at between
   £16,000 and £25,000. Five months later, it 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.

   In December 1999, the third Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the
   Prisoner of Azkaban, won the Smarties Prize, making Rowling the first
   person to win the award three times running. 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 narrowly lost
   the Book of the Year prize to Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf.
   That June, the Queen honoured Rowling by making her an Officer of the
   Order of the British Empire.

   To date, six of the seven volumes of the Harry Potter series, one for
   each of Harry’s school years, have already been published and all have
   broken sales records. The last three volumes in the series have been
   the fastest-selling books in history, grossing more in their opening
   24-hours than blockbuster films. Book six of her series earned The
   Guinness World Records Award for being the fastest selling book ever.
   The sixth book of the series sold more copies in 24-hours than The Da
   Vinci Code sold in a year. (The Da Vinci Code was the best-selling book
   of the previous year.)

   Rowling is currently writing the seventh and final book of the series.
   Its title is currently unknown. On June 26, 2006, Rowling revealed that
   in the final book of the Harry Potter series at least two characters
   will die, one of whom may be Harry himself.  Authors Stephen King and
   John Irving asked Rowling not to kill off Harry in book seven during a
   press conference, but Rowling remained ambiguous regarding Harry’s
   fate.

   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.

Harry Potter films

   In October, 1998, Warner Bros. purchased the film rights to the first
   two novels for a seven-figure sum. A film version of Harry Potter and
   the Philosopher's Stone was released on November 16, 2001 and Harry
   Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on November 15, 2002. Both were
   directed by Chris Columbus. The June 4, 2004 film version 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. A film of Harry Potter and the Order
   of the Phoenix is now in production, under British television director
   David Yates, and new screenwriter Michael Goldenberg, projected for
   release on July 13, 2007.

   In contrast to the treatment of most authors by Hollywood studios,
   Warner Bros. took considerable notice of Rowling's desires and thoughts
   in their attempt to bring her books to the screen. One of her principal
   stipulations was the films be shot in Britain with an all-British cast,
   which has so far been adhered to strictly. 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.

   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 says she has told him more
   about the later books than anybody else, but not everything. She has
   also said that she has told Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane certain
   secrets about their characters that have not yet been revealed. 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 on her website that she has no say in who
   directs the films. Rowling's first choice for the director of the first
   Harry Potter film had been Monty Python alumnus Terry Gilliam, being a
   fan of Gilliam's work. Warner Bros. studios wanted a more family
   friendly film, however, and eventually they settled for Chris Columbus.

After Harry Potter

   Harry Potter has made Rowling a well known and a very successful
   author, but after Rowling finishes the final Harry Potter book, she
   plans to continue writing. Rowling declared, in a recent interview,
   that she will most likely not use a new pen name as the press would
   quickly discover her true identity.

   In 2006, Rowling revealed that she had completed 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.

   She is not planning to write an eighth Harry Potter book, but has
   suggested she might publish an "encyclopedia" of the Harry Potter world
   consisting of all her unpublished material and notes. Any profits from
   such a book would be given to charity.

Charity

   In 2001, the UK fundraiser Comic Relief asked three bestselling British
   authors (Rowling, lifestyle guru Delia Smith and Bridget Jones creator
   Helen Fielding) to submit booklets related to their most famous works
   for publication. For every pound raised, a pound would go towards
   combatting 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) for the
   fund. The £10.8 million ($20 million) raised outside the UK has been
   channelled into a newly created International Fund for Children and
   Young People in Crisis. She has also personally given £22 million to
   Comic Relief.

   Rowling has contributed money and support to many other charitable
   causes, especially research and treatment of multiple sclerosis, from
   which her mother died in 1990. This death heavily affected her writing,
   according to Rowling. In 2006, Rowling contributed a substantial sum
   toward the creation of a new Centre for Regenerative Medicine at
   Edinburgh University. For reasons unknown, Scotland, Rowling's country
   of adoption, has the highest rate of MS in the world.

   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 children, particularly in eastern Europe.

   On August 1st & 2nd, 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 actors
   left uninsurable and unable to work, and the medical NGO Médecins Sans
   Frontières.

Her name

   Rowling's full name is "Joanne Rowling", not, as is often assumed,
   "Joanne Kathleen Rowling". Before publishing her first volume,
   Bloomsbury feared that the target audience of young boys might be
   reluctant to buy books written by a female author. They requested that
   Rowling use two initials, rather than reveal her first name. As she had
   no middle name, she chose K from her grandmother's name Kathleen, as
   the second initial of her pseudonym. The name Kathleen has never been
   part of her legal name. She calls herself "Jo" and claims, "No one ever
   called me 'Joanne' when I was young, unless they were angry." Her
   surname is pronounced like "rolling" (IPA: /rəʊ.lɪŋ/), not a rhyme for
   "howling".

Current life and family

   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. Rowling also owns a home in Morningside,
   Edinburgh, and a Georgian house in London, on a street where, according
   to The Guardian, the average price of a house is £4.27 million ($8
   million), possibly including an underground swimming pool and 24-hour
   security.

   On 26 December 2001, Rowling married Dr. Neil Murray, an anaesthetist,
   in a private ceremony at her home in Aberfeldy. Their son David Gordon
   Rowling Murray was born on March 3rd, 2003, shortly after Rowling began
   writing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Rowling took a break
   from working on the novel to care for him in his early infancy.
   Rowling's youngest child, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray, to whom she
   dedicated Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was born in January
   of 2005.

In her honour

   The asteroid (43844) Rowling was named in her honour in early 2006, and
   the newly-discovered Pachycephalosaurid dinosaur Dracorex hogwartsia,
   currently at the Children's Museum in Indianapolis, was named in honour
   of her world in May 2006. There is a housing development in Bristol,
   near to her childhood home called Rowling Gate.

Television

   Rowling made a guest appearance as herself on the American animated
   sitcom The Simpsons, in a special British-themed episode entitled The
   Regina Monologues. The amusing dialog consisted of a short conversation
   between Rowling and Lisa Simpson, who mispronounces Rowling's name:

   Lisa: Look! It's J.K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter books! You've
   turned a generation of kids onto reading.
   Rowling: Thank you, young Muggle.
   Lisa: Can you tell me what happens at the end of the series?
   Rowling: (sigh) He grows up and marries you.  (angrily) Is that what
   you want to hear?
   Lisa: (dreamily) Yes!

   Producer Russell T. Davies asked Rowling to pen an episode of the 2005
   season of Doctor Who; Rowling was "amused by the suggestion, but simply
   [didn't] have the time".

   In a July 2005 interview with the MuggleNet and Leaky Cauldron
   websites' managers, Rowling revealed that she is a great admirer of
   Aaron Sorkin's work on the American TV show The West Wing.

   In 2002, Rowling appeared on the BBC documentary "The Importance of
   Being Morrissey".

   Very recently, in November 2006, Rowling appeared on a tribute to the
   Royle Family sitcom on BBC one.

Lawsuits

   Rowling has been involved in several lawsuits over the Harry Potter
   series.

   In the late 1990s Nancy Stouffer, an author of children's books
   published in the 1980s, began to charge publicly that Rowling's books
   were based on her books, including The Legend of Rah and the Muggles
   and Larry Potter and His Best Friend Lilly. Stouffer sued Rowling and
   Scholastic, Inc. in U.S. District Court, also naming Time Warner as a
   party. Rowling, Scholastic and Warner Bros. sued Stouffer in New York,
   asking the court to judge that there was no infringement of Stouffer's
   trademarks or copyright. Rowling and her co-litigants argued that much
   of the evidence that Stouffer presented was fraudulent, and asked for
   sanctions and attorneys' fees as punishment. In September 2002 the
   court found in Rowling's favour, stating that Stouffer had lied to the
   court and falsified and forged documents to support her case. Stouffer
   was fined US $50,000 and ordered to pay part (but not all) of the
   plaintiffs' costs. In January 2004 it was reported that Stouffer's
   appeal against the judgment had been rejected.

   In 2002, unauthorized, ghostwritten Chinese language "sequels" to the
   Harry Potter series, such as Harry Potter and
   Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon, appeared for sale in the People's Republic
   of China. Rowling's lawyers successfully took legal action against the
   publishers, who were forced to pay damages. On 19 June 2003 Rowling and
   her publisher Scholastic announced that they would sue the New York
   Daily News for $100 million because the newspaper had printed
   information on her work Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
   before the book's official release date. The paper had purchased the
   book from a health store whose owner received the novels wholesale and
   decided to place them in the window. The man claimed he was unaware he
   was supposed to wait until that Saturday. Also in 2003, courts in the
   Netherlands prevented the distribution of a Dutch translation of Tanya
   Grotter and the Magical Double Bass, the first of Dmitry Yemets'
   popular Russian series about a female apprentice wizard, Tanya Grotter.
   Rowling and her publishers sued, arguing that the Grotter books violate
   copyright law. Yemets and his original Moscow-based publishers, Eksmo,
   argued that the books constitute a parody, permitted under copyright.
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