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Author
J.K. Rowling
 Most
of us know J.K. Rowling as the author of the successful Harry
Potter series of books. In America alone, there are well over
100 million copies of her books in print. But did you know
that Rowling used longhand to produce her first Harry Potter
book because she was too poor to buy a typewriter or a computer?
Rowling
was born in 1965 in Chipping Sodbury, England. She knew from
an early age that she wanted to be a writer, but her parents
urged her to study French. She worked as a bilingual secretary
for a bit but found she was not good at it. She was too disorganized
and spent too much time making up stories in her head when
she was supposed to be working.
Rowling
was about 25 years old when she first thought up the idea
for Harry Potter while waiting for a train. During the next
few years, she worked to put her story down on paper. But
there were obstacles. Her marriage ended in divorce, and Rowling
became a single mom. She went on welfare because she could
not afford child care. Her apartment had no heat, so she often
went to a coffee shop to work on the book while her daughter
slept in a stroller next to her.
At first,
Rowling had problems finding a publisher for Harry Potter.
Some publishers worried that kids would not want to read something
that was 320 pages long. Lucky for fans, however, she kept
trying. In 1997, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's
Stone” was published in the United Kingdom. It appeared
in the United States the following year under the title “Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.” Movie versions of
Rowling's books began coming to theaters in 2001.
Rowling
no longer needs to worry about trying to write stories out
by hand in a cold apartment. She is now worth more than $1
billion, making her richer than England's Queen Elizabeth
II. And while Rowling is no longer adding to the Harry Potter
series, there is little doubt that publishers will more than
welcome new stories she creates—whatever their length
may be.
Fun
Facts about J.K. Rowling
- Rowling
feared boys would be discouraged from reading the Harry
Potter books if they knew the author was female, so she
decided to use initials instead. The “J” in
J.K. Rowling stands for the author's first name, Joanne.
She doesn't have a middle name, so she chose “K”
in honor of her grandmother, Kathleen.
- A
theme park called The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is
scheduled to open at Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure
in Orlando, Fla., in 2009. Rowling is collaborating on the
attraction, a place where visitors can walk through the
Forbidden Forest and stroll through the Hogwarts Castle.
- Potter-mania
is a worldwide phenomenon. The books have been translated
into more than 60 languages and can be found in some 200
countries!
- Each
title in the Harry Potter series has been #1 on The
New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal
bestseller lists
- In
just 24 hours, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,”
the final book of Rowling's series, sold 8.3 million copies
in the United States and 2.6 million copies in Britain.
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