J. K. Rowling
From the Encyclopedia of Speculative Fiction - http://encyclopedia.wizards.pro
Joanne Rowling, OBE (born 31 July, 1965 in Yate), commonly known as J.K. Rowling (pronunciation: role-ing, as in rolling stone) is a British fiction writer. Rowling is most famous for authoring the Harry Potter series, which have gained international attention and have won multiple awards. In February 2004, Forbes magazine estimated her fortune as £576 million, making her the first person to become a US dollar billionaire by writing books; Rowling is also the wealthiest woman in the United Kingdom, well ahead of even Queen Elizabeth II.[1] [2]
Contents |
Early Life
J.K. Rowling was born in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom in 1965. Together with her mother, father, and younger sister, Diana, she moved to Winterbourne, Bristol and then to Tutshill near Chepstow. She attended secondary school at Wyedean Comprehensive, where she told stories to her fellow students. In 1990, her 45-year-old mother succumbed to a decade-long battle with multiple sclerosis.
After studying French and Classics at Exeter University, 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 already had the characters and a good part of the plot for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in her head, which she began working on during her lunch hours.
Rowling then moved to Oporto, Portugal, to teach English as a foreign language. While there she married Portuguese TV journalist Jorge Arantes on 16 October 1992. They had one child, Jessica Rowling Arantes (born 27 July 1993), before their divorce in 1995.
In December, 1994, she and her daughter moved to be near her sister in Edinburgh. Unemployed and living on state benefits, she completed her first novel, doing some of the work in an Edinburgh cafe. (There is a widely circulated rumour that she wrote in a local cafe in order to escape from her unheated flat - but according to the author this is false).
After Harry
Rowling's publisher, Bloomsbury, wanted to use initials on the cover of the Harry Potter books, suggesting that if they used an obviously female name, the target group of young boys might be reluctant to buy them. Rowling chose to adopt her grandmother's name, Kathleen, for the middle initial.
The Harry Potter series is expected to run to seven volumes, one for each year Harry spends in school. Six of these have already been published. The fifth book, titled Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was delayed by an unsuccessful plagiarism suit directed towards her by rival author Nancy Stouffer (see below). Rowling took some time off from writing at this point, because during the process of writing the fifth book she felt her workload was too heavy. She said that at one point she had considered breaking her arm to get out of writing, because the pressure on her was too much. After forcing her publishers to drop her deadline, she enjoyed three years of quiet writing, commenting that she spent some time working on something else that she might return to when she is finished with the Harry Potter series. The fifth book was released on 21 June 2003.
In late 2003, she was approached by television producer Russell T. Davies to contribute an episode to the British television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Although she was "amused by the suggestion", she turned the offer down, as she was busy working on the next novel in the Potter series. On 20 December 2004 she announced that the sixth Harry Potter book would be released on 16 July 2005.
Rowling has also made a guest appearance as herself on the American cartoon show The Simpsons, in a special British-themed episode entitled "The Regina Monologues".
The Harry Potter books
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (June 26 1997) (titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban {September 8 1999)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (July 8 2000)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (June 21 2003)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 16, 2005)
Harry Potter-related books:
The last two purport to be facsimiles of books mentioned in the novels. Fantastic Beasts is a textbook, while Quidditch is probably the most popular book in the Hogwart's library. They are complete with handwritten annotations and scribblings in the margins, and include introductions by Albus Dumbledore. All proceeds from them go to the UK Comic Relief charity, which as Rowling has noted is quite different from the American one. She has contributed money and support to many other charitable causes such as the research and treatment of multiple sclerosis.
Harry Potter movies
A film version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released in late 2001 and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in 2002. Both were directed by American film director Chris Columbus.
A darker atmosphere was adopted in the film version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, attributed to the new director, Alfonso Cuarón. Rowling, who was a fan of Cuarón's work prior to the third film, has stated that the third film is her personal favorite.
Rowling resisted suggestions by the filmmakers that the movies should be filmed in the United States or cast with American actors (only one American appears in the first film). She reluctantly acquiesced to the changing Philosopher's Stone to Sorcerer's Stone, and limited it to the U.S. only.
Rowling assists Steve Kloves in writing the scripts for the films, ensuring that his scripts do 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 are not yet revealed.
New York Daily News
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 novel was due for release on Saturday 21 June, but the newspaper published a plot summary and short quotes on the previous Wednesday. An accompanying image even revealed two pages from the book with legible text. However, the story was complicated further when it was revealed that 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.
Family
On 26 December 2001, Rowling married Dr. Neil Murray (an anaesthetist) in a private ceremony at her home in the Perthshire village of Aberfeldy. On 23 March 2003, Rowling gave birth to her second child, a boy called David Gordon Rowling Murray, at the Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health at the New Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. On 23 January 2005, Rowling's second child by Dr. Murray was born, fulfilling Rowling's lifelong wish to have three children. The baby girl was named Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray.
| Some of this page is derived from Wikipedia. The original article was at J. K. Rowling. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Wizards.pro, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |