English writer JK Rowling visited primary school St. Michael's, founded over 200 years ago, and was also childhood friends with a boy named Potter. At the age of six, she showed her mother her first story about the adventures of a rabbit named Rabbit.
In her senior year, Joan decided that she would go to Oxford. She successfully passed the entrance exams, her name was included in the list of candidates, but she did not become a student at a prestigious university. Joan decided not to try again and not waste a year, so she applied to the University of Exeter in Devon, where she was enrolled in 1983.
After graduating from university, Rowling moved to Forks, where she worked several jobs. She was a secretary-translator at the London branch of Amnesty International and briefly worked at the Manchester Chamber of Commerce.
In 1991, at the age of 26, Joan went to Porto to teach English. During this time, she began working on her third novel. The new book was about a boy who discovered that he was a wizard and ended up in a wizarding school.
In Porto in August 1992, Joan married student journalist Jorge Arantes. Their daughter Jessica was born in 1993. After the birth of her daughter, the husband filed for divorce. After the divorce, Rowling and her daughter moved to Edinburgh, Scotland.
In Edinburgh, Joan continued to write Harry Potter. The Scottish Arts Council gave her a grant to complete the book, and after a series of rejections, she eventually sold Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to Bloomsbury for $4,000. During this time, Rowling worked as a French teacher.
“Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” was published in June 1997 and became a sensation - the novel by an aspiring and unknown writer was recognized in the UK as the best children's book of the year. The rights to publish the novel were acquired by the American publishing house Arthur Levine, and in October 1998 the book was republished in the United States with a slightly changed title: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
The first novel was followed by "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), " Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005). The seventh and final novel in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows series was published in 2007. The Harry Potter novels have been translated into more than 65 languages and have sold more than 400 million copies.
In 1998, the film studio Warner Bros. bought the film rights to Rowling's novels. All Potter series were successful at the box office and received critical acclaim.
The success of the series among readers, as well as films based on the novels, brought Rowling worldwide fame and condition. Since 2004, JK Rowling has been the most rich woman In Great Britain. Forbes magazine in 2008 estimated her fortune at $1 billion.
JK Rowling is an English writer, one of the most popular authors in the world. After all, she is “Harry Potter’s mother”! A series of novels about a boy wizard performed magic on Joanna herself, turning her from a struggling single mother into the richest woman in Britain. Today, Joan's fortune is estimated at a billion dollars.
JK Rowling was born very young English family. The daughter was born when her parents, who met by chance on a train, turned 20 years old. At that time, her mother was a soldier, and her father was a recruit. However, having learned about the pregnancy, the parents decided to leave the army, settled in one place and turned into ordinary people. Joan's dad worked at the factory all his life, and her mother devoted herself to Joan and her younger sister Diana, who was born two years later.
The family was good and friendly, although not rich. The children there were loved and nurtured. Therefore, already in early childhood Joanna could retell any fairy tale almost by heart, and when she was 6 years old, she began to try to compose them herself. The first story she wrote, with an unsteady hand, was about the adventures of a rabbit named Rabbit, and it greatly pleased her younger sister. The sisters, by the way, have always been friendly.
Meanwhile, Joan's parents moved often and worked a lot, which is why, when the future billionaire was only 15 years old, her mother became seriously ill. Doctors diagnosed him with multiple sclerosis. But the mother thought more about her daughters than about herself. Joan began to actively storm universities. And although she herself dreamed of studying English, so as not to upset her mother, she fulfilled her will - she entered the French department of the University of Exeter in Devon. Well, after studying, I immediately got a job as a secretary and translator at the London branch of Amnesty International in the city of Forks.
In those years, Joan lived the life of an ordinary secretary, who bangs on the keys of an old typewriter from bell to bell, and then returns to her poor rented apartment closer to midnight, because she does not have time to redo all her paperwork during the day. And no one guessed that in fact the inconspicuous secretary had a parallel life, where everything was not boring at all, but on the contrary, bright and fantastic. And this life took place right under the noses of Joanna’s bosses. It’s just that right at work, and even sitting in the office afterwards, she didn’t clear away paper debris at all, but slowly did what she always loved - wrote a novel!
True, at that time the insecure woman did not dare to tell anyone about it. And, perhaps, she would not have decided further if circumstances had not pressed her to the wall, literally squeezing a decisive action out of Joan. And it was like this...
In 1990, a tragedy struck a woman’s life: after being seriously ill for several years, her mother died. Not knowing how to overcome the melancholy, Joan decided to radically change her life and left for Portugal. There she got a job as a teacher in English, and soon met a journalist guy with whom she fell in love and married. Who knew that the man whom she so wanted to rely on after her mother’s death would make Joan even more unhappy? Her husband left her when her daughter Jessica, born in 1993, was only three months old. And now Joanna's life has become even more dreary. As she later recalled in her interviews, this was the most difficult period of her life. The future billionaire lived on benefits, huddled in a tiny and very cold apartment on the outskirts of the city, in which rats frolicked under the floor at night, and did nothing but push a stroller with a child around the city, sometimes stopping to drink coffee in the same cafe. It is unlikely that again anyone would have guessed that Joanna’s saving parallel world was with her. In fact, in the cafe, the long-suffering single mother did not just sip coffee, gawking at passers-by more fortunate than her. Yes, and I walked the streets with a stroller for a reason, too. Joan walked a lot so that her daughter could fall asleep better, and did not interfere with her doing her favorite thing in the cafe - writing a novel! “Someday I’ll read it to my daughter,” she dreamed. And again she turned her inner gaze from the peacefully sleeping baby to the dark-haired boy in round glasses with a scar on his forehead. It was Harry Potter - main character her future novel, a wizard boy with the last name of her childhood friends, whom she came up with one day on the way, looking out the train window. At that moment, he was already gaining experience in the school of wizards, created by Joan by hand in an ordinary notebook, in order to one day change her life.
It’s not for nothing that Joan babysat her younger sister as a child. In adult life she did not leave her, and continued to support her morally and physically during the difficult period. One day, in a moment of such frank sisterly conversation, Joan opened up to Diane. They were just laughing, remembering Rabbit Rabbit, when tired, but refreshed from communicating with her kind sister, Joanna suddenly said: “And I’m finishing writing.” new novel" “Well, tell me!” the sister perked up. And until the morning they, as in childhood, turned into a storyteller and listener. The next morning, my sister grabbed Joanna’s hand: “This is great! Come on, let’s go!” That same day, my sister gave Joanna a royal gift - she bought an old typewriter from a second-hand store. Since that day, the single mother has had more worries. At night, the rats stopped frolicking under the floor of her cold apartment, not understanding what kind of knocking the hostess was making. At that time she was reprinting the novel.
Another difficult period followed. When Joanna and her sister stormed publishing houses, they were rejected everywhere. But a drop wears away a stone. One day they got lucky. They managed to negotiate with a very cheerful literary agent, who took the manuscript to the book fair in Frankfurt, where he finally sold it to the Bloomsberry publishing house for 4 thousand dollars. And in 1997, he helped Joan receive a grant, with the money from which she finally bought herself a computer. And... in 1997, Joanna's virtual son Harry Potter was released. He studied really well at the school of wizards invented for him by his mother - the book by an unknown writer created a sensation. “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” (as Joanna called the novel) that same year was recognized as the best children's book of the year, and the very next year the Americans bought the rights to it for an amount that Joanna had never even held in her hands, but simply I couldn’t even imagine - 110 thousand dollars!
Now Joanna could finally afford everything. First of all, she moved to new apartment, well, and in the second - I finally quit working as a teacher in courses that had become boring. And she devoted herself entirely to writing. Moreover, now she had a lot of work: before Joanne’s mind’s eye, like frames of a film, new adventures of her imaginary “son” were already running, which, she already knew, would be enough for several more equally successful books.
How surprised and delighted Joanna was when one day someone knocked on her new apartment. ex-husband, who once left her with a child in her arms without a penny of money. Having learned that his ex had become rich, he came to make peace. And yes, Joanna was happy... that she could gracefully show him out the door. The offended man returned home and took revenge - he gave several interviews about Joanna, mysterious to journalists, in which he did not hide anything, but on the contrary, even embellished it. Revenge turned out to be successful for Joanna. The public, having learned about the ordeals of the selfless single mother, fell in love with her even more. The book about Harry Potter at that time was selling out at a frantic speed, making Joanna richer and more self-confident. No, not just Joanna. Now she would not be able to walk down the street or sit in a cafe as before. Now she has become JK Rowling - the favorite writer of the British, and soon the whole world.
Rowling wrote a new novel every year, and by 2007, she had fully described Harry's life in seven books. And along with the printed pages, the fortune of the now very rich writer grew. By 2008, when she completely completed the work, the book (all seven volumes) had been translated into 65 languages of the world, and its circulation was estimated at more than 400 million copies!
In 1998, the world-famous film studio Warner Brothers bought the rights to film Harry's adventures, turning JK Rowling into a billionaire within a few years. Her personal life also improved: in 2001, Rowling married an anesthesiologist, taking his last name Murray, and maiden name leaving it as an alias. And now Joanna was lucky with her husband, and in 2003 she gave him a son, David Gordon Rowling Murray, and in 2005, a daughter, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray.
By the way, Rich life did not at all affect the creative fertility of the writer; she still carefully cherishes her Parallel Worlds- writes books. In particular, he continues to develop the Harry Potter theme in novels dealing with indirect characters, and plans to publish an encyclopedia on all parts of Harry Potter. And Joan’s character, as they say, has not changed at all since the old, difficult times: she is still kind and hardworking, actively involved in charity work and organizing creative meetings, at one of which she summed up her life like this:
“All people want their life to be comfortable. But the first of the Buddha's four great truths is: life is suffering. I really like these words. Because life doesn't have to be comfortable. And in this I find peace - for myself and for everyone who is confused in life. You will find a way out. And I’m sure I’ll definitely get into some trouble. I just hope that they will be on a slightly smaller scale.”
Data
- Since 2004, JK Rowling has been the richest woman in the UK. Forbes magazine in 2008 estimated her fortune at $1 billion.
- 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.
- JK Rowling's books have been translated into 65 languages.
- JK Rowling worked as a secretary for the human rights organization Amnesty International.
- Asteroid No. 43844, at the suggestion of Chicago astronomer Mark Hammergren, who discovered it, will be named Rowling in honor of the famous writer.
- Before the first publication of Harry Potter, 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.
Awards
JK Rowling is the winner of many prestigious literary awards, including Nestle Smarties Gold Award (three times), British Book Awards, Children's Book Award (twice), The Booksellers Association/The Bookseller Author of the Year Award (twice), Scottish Arts Council Children's Book Award (twice), Spanish Prince of Asturias Award. And in 2000, Rowling was awarded the Order of the British Empire.
2001 - Hugo Award for the Harry Potter series
2009 - Order of the Legion of Honor
Movies
2001 — “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”
2002 — “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”
2004 — “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”
2005 — “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”
2007 — “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”
2009 — “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
2010 — “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1”
2011 — “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”
Books
1997 — “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”
1998 — “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”
1999 — “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”
2000 — “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”
2001 — “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”
2001 — “Quidditch from antiquity to the present day”
2003 — “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”
2005 — “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
2007 — “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”
2007 — “Tales of Beedle the Bard”
2008 — “Harry Potter: The Background”
2012 — “Random Vacancy”
Games
"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"
"LEGO Creator: Harry Potter"
"Harry Potter And The Chamber of secrets"
"LEGO Creator: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"
"Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup"
"Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban"
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
"Harry Potter: Lessons in Magic"
"Harry Potter and Half Blood Prince"
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 game"
"LEGO: Harry Potter 1-4"
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 game"
"LEGO: Harry Potter 5-7"
"Harry Potter Kinect"
An English writer, best known by her pseudonym J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series of novels, translated into 64 languages. In 2001, JK Rowling received a Hugo Award for her book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Knight of the Legion of Honor (2009).
Born on July 31, 1965 in the small town of Yate in Gloucestershire (16 km northeast of Bristol). Parents - Peter James Rowling (English Peter James Rowling) and Anne Rowling (English Anne Rowling), before marriage - Volant (English Volant). Sister Dianne (Di) was born 2 years later than Joanna - June 28, 1967.
When Joan was 4 years old, the family moved to the village of Winterbourne. In Winterbourne, he and his sister played with a girl and a boy named Potter. Joan attended St Michael's Primary School, founded over 200 years ago by William Wilberforce.
The mother gave all her time to her daughters. Anne loved reading books to children. By the age of five, Joanna almost knew all the children's books by heart. At the age of six, she showed her mother her first story about the adventures of a rabbit named Rabbit.
The family moved again when she was nine years old - to Tutshill near Chepstow in Forest of Dean. When Joan was 15 years old, her mother fell ill. Diagnosis: multiple sclerosis.
In her senior year, Joan decided that she would go to Oxford. She successfully passed the entrance exams, her name was included in the list of candidates, but she did not become a student at a prestigious university. Joan decided not to try again and not waste a year, so she applied to the University of Exeter in Devon, where she was enrolled in 1983. She wanted to study her native English language, but at the insistence of her parents she chose the French department.
After graduating from university, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree, Rowling moved to Forks, where she changed several jobs. She worked as a secretary-translator for the London branch of Amnesty International and briefly for the Manchester Chamber of Commerce.
In 1990, JK Rowling moved to Manchester.
On December 30, 1990, at the age of 45, Joanna's mother, who had been virtually paralyzed for several years before her death, died. After this, Joan decided to leave England for Portugal.
In 1991, at the age of 26, Joanna went to Portugal to teach English. 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"). The new book was about a boy who discovered that he was a wizard and ended up in a wizarding school.
In Portugal, in August 1992, Joan married student journalist Jorge Arantes. Their daughter, Jessica, was born in 1993. The couple divorced that same year. After the divorce, Rowling and her daughter moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, closer to her younger sister Dee.
In Edinburgh, Joanna went to write Harry Potter at Nicholson's Cafe, owned by her sister's husband.
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. At this time, Rowling works as a French teacher.
A few months later, the publishing house Arthur A Levin/Educational Literature buys American rights for a book for enough money that she could quit teaching.
"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was published in June 1997 and became a sensation - the novel by an aspiring and unknown writer was recognized in the UK as the best children's book of the year. The rights to publish the novel were acquired by the American publisher Arthur Levine, and in October 1998 the book was republished in the United States with the slightly changed title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Subsequently, JK Rowling never adapted the titles of her novels for an American audience.
The first novel was followed by Harry Potter and 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), "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (2005). The seventh and final novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published in the UK and USA, as well as several other countries, in 2007. Rowling has repeatedly assured that the seventh novel will be the last in the series, but on the eve of its release she did not rule out that she would write a continuation of the adventures of her heroes in the future.
In 1998, the film studio Warner Bros. bought the film rights to two Rowling novels.
In 2001, the film “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” was released, directed by American director Chris Columbus, known for the films “Home Alone”, “Bicentennial Man” and “Mrs. Doubtfire”. He also became the director of the next film based on Rowling’s works, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” Film adaptations of Rowling's third, fourth and fifth novels appeared in 2004, 2006 and 2007, and the sixth film (Half-Blood Prince) was released in 2009. The seventh book will be divided into 2 films, which will be released in 2010 and 2011 respectively.
The Harry Potter series of novels has been translated into more than 60 languages. More than 250 million copies of the 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.
JK Rowling is the winner of many prestigious literary awards, including Nestle Smarties Gold Award (three times), British Book Awards, Children's Book Award (twice), The Booksellers Association/The Bookseller Author of the Year Award (twice), Scottish Arts Council Children's Book Award (twice), Spanish Prince of Asturias Award.
In 2000, Rowling was awarded the Order of the British Empire.
On December 4, 2008, in 25 countries, including Russia, a new book by JK Rowling, “The Tales of Beedle the Bard,” appeared in bookstores. All money from the sale of the book will go to the account of The Children's High Level Group, a charitable organization that protects the rights of children in Eastern Europe. However, "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" will not put an end to Potter. According to Rowling, she also plans to write an encyclopedia on all parts of the novel.
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.
On December 26, 2001, JK Rowling remarried Edinburgh anesthetist Neil Scott Murray. In March 2003, the couple had a son, David Gordon Rowling Murray, and in January 2005, a daughter, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray.
(eng. Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray).
Name
The real name of the writer is Joanne Rowling, and not Joanne Rowling, as many people think. 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. In this case, it was required that the initials consist of two letters. Rowling did not have a middle name and chose her grandmother's name, Kathleen - J. K. Rowling for her middle initial. She also chose this name because of the alphabetical consonance - in the English alphabet the letter K comes immediately after the letter J. In December 2001, the writer got married and took her husband’s surname - Murray, but continued to write under the name J.K. Rowling.
Keywords: When was JK Rowling born? Where was JK Rowling born? What age is JK Rowling? What is JK Rowling's marital status? What is JK Rowling famous for? What is JK Rowling's nationality?
The first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which marked the beginning of a series of novels about the Hogwarts school of wizardry and its wards, was published by Bloomsbury back in 1997. Its author was an unknown at that time Englishwoman Joanne Rowling Almost instantly, the book became a bestseller and gained unprecedented worldwide popularity: copies disappeared from store shelves faster than they could be put there.
Almost 20 years later, it is difficult to imagine that neither Rowling herself nor as many as twelve (!) publishers who refused to publish the book initially did not believe in the success of Harry Potter.
How did Harry Potter appear?
In 1990, the 25-year-old girl Joan had to travel along the Manchester-London route. However, the train was delayed for almost four hours, and Joan had no choice but to be bored while waiting for the trip. Trying to pass the time, the future writer began to fantasize: it was then that the fateful idea came to her mind to write a book about a boy wizard. At that moment, Joan didn’t even have a pen to write down the plot that had arisen in her imagination, and her natural shyness prevented her from asking someone else for it.
Immediately upon arriving home, Joan began writing her first book about Harry. However, it took several more years to finally plan and write the seven Potter books, and several more to become “the greatest living British author,” as the media describes her.
Biography of JK Rowling: life before Harry Potter
Joan was born July 31, 1965 year in a small Yate town in the English county of Gloucestershire. Some sources indicate another place of her birth - the village Chipping Sodbury, however, in reality, Rowling never lived there, and the rumor was started by Joan herself because of her dislike for the gloomy and inhospitable city where she grew up. Since then, publishers and advertising agents have indicated her fictitious place of birth in the author's biography.
The future writer's earliest memories of her childhood are associated with the birth of her younger sister Diana, who was born 23 months after the birth of Joan herself. From an early age, Rowling loved to read, devoting a fair amount of her time to this hobby: “A real bookworm with freckles and glasses,” This is exactly how the writer describes herself as a child.
At the age of six, Joan composed her first fairy tale about a rabbit with measles, which she simply named “Rabbit,” and the young writer’s first listeners were her younger sister and parents. Having received praise for the story, Joan decided to publish it immediately, which she told her parents: “An unexpected decision for a six-year-old child,” Rowling herself later admits.
When Joan was 9 years old, the family moved to the small village of Tutshill, located near the town of Chepstow in South Wales. The desire to write did not weaken with age: at the age of 11, Joan wrote another story about the seven cursed diamonds and the people who owned them. In her own autobiography, Rowling recalls with great warmth her childhood friend Sean, who believed that one day she would become an excellent writer: “He was the only one who believed that I would definitely succeed,” recalls Joan.
In 1983, after graduating secondary school Wyedean Comprehensive School, Joan entered the University of Exeter in the southwest part of England, studying French. Later in an interview, Joan admits that she regretted her decision: she wanted to study English literature, but her parents considered her daughter’s choice unsuccessful and advised her to go to the French department. “I should have stood my ground,” Joan laments. “The only advantage was that studying French required a year of study in Paris.”
After graduating from university, Rowling moved to London, where over the next few years she changed several jobs. By her own admission, what she loved most was working as a researcher for the charity Amnesty International, whose mission is to fight against human rights violations around the world.
In 1990, Joan began the first chapter of her future bestseller, but in December of the same year, her mother, Anne Rowling, died of multiple sclerosis. This was an extremely difficult period in the writer’s life: it was difficult for her to cope with the departure of her mother, with whom she was truly close. This loss was reflected in Rowling’s subsequent work: by her own admission, the writer’s favorite episode in the book she wrote was the moment when Harry sees his dead parents in the magical Mirror of Erised.
Rowling soon received a job offer and moved to Portugal, where she worked as an English teacher. It was there that Joan met her first husband. They got married in 1992, and a year later the couple had a daughter, Jessica. However, this union was not destined to become lasting, and just four months after the birth of the child, Joan separated from her husband and returned to the UK, settling next to her sister in the Scottish city of Edinburgh. The following years for Joan became a difficult period of poverty and real depression. She earned a living alone and took care of her little daughter. Mine own experience Joan used the fight against depression in her book when creating the image of Dementors - creatures that “suck” the feeling of happiness from their victims.
Rowling finished publishing her first book in 1995. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" on an old manual typewriter and sent it to several literary agents. Bryony Evans from the Christopher Little Literary Agents praised the book's potential and immediately agreed to submit the manuscript to twelve publishing houses.
However, a whole year passed before the long-awaited news arrived: the small publishing house Bloomsbury accepted the book for publication. There is a legend in the publishing house itself that the decision was made thanks to the chairman’s 8-year-old daughter, who liked the book about wizards. Rowling received an advance of £1,500, and in June 1997 the first Harry Potter book was published in a small print run of just a thousand copies, half of which were sent to libraries. This was truly a turning point in the life of the writer.
JK Rowling: world fame and recognition
Happy wife: JK Rowling with her husband
Neil Murray at the premiere of the film "Harry Potter"
in 2009. Photo freelancewritingteam.com
Harry Potter changed JK Rowling's life dramatically, but this time all the changes were for the better. Shortly after the book's publication, she received a grant from the Scottish Arts Council, which allowed her to quit her day job and focus on writing the next part.
After the incredible success of her first novel in the UK, the American company Scholastic offered the writer £100,000 in exchange for the right to publish her book in the US.
A year after the release of “The Philosopher’s Stone,” eager readers waited for it to continue: a second book entitled "Harry Potter And The Chamber of secrets"(Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), which immediately became a bestseller. At the same time, Joan signed a contract for a 7-figure sum with the Warner Brothers film company and instantly became a millionaire. The appearance of films on silver screens greatly increased the success of the books and made Harry Potter one of the most recognizable media products. At Joan's insistent request, all films about Harry were as close as possible to the original plot, the roles involved English actors, and filming locations were chosen exclusively in the UK.
When is the fourth book in the series? "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"(Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) was published, it managed to break all previous records: on the first day in the UK, more than 372 thousand copies were sold, and in the US, over three million books were swept off store shelves in the first 48 hours. It is not surprising that in 2000, Rowling received the prestigious British Book Awards as Author of the Year.
Pleasant changes also followed in Joan's personal life: in December 2001, she married an anesthesiologist Neil Murray(Neil Michael Murray). In March 2003, they had a son, David Gordon Rowling Murray, and in January 2005, their youngest daughter, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray. These happy events In Joan's personal life, the release of new books slowed down, and the tabloids immediately suggested that Rowling was having a creative "crisis." In general, the creator of Harry Potter had difficult relationship with the press. Journalists portrayed Joan as a recluse who does not make contact and hates giving interviews, which, according to Rowling herself, was completely untrue. Some believe that difficulties in relations with the media led to the creation of the image of the overly meticulous journalist Rita Skeeter in the Harry Potter books.
On December 21, 2006, Joan completed work on the seventh and presumably final book in the series, entitled "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"(Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). The book was published in July 2007 and once again broke all records for speed and sales volume, allowing Rowling to take the 144th place in the ranking richest people in Britain according to the Sunday Times.
JK Rowling with actors: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint at the premiere of the film about Harry Potter. Photo dailymail.co.uk
After the release of Deathly Hallows, Rowling said in an interview that she did not intend to write an eighth book: “Perhaps in the next 10 years I will want to write a sequel, but I think this is unlikely.” However, the story continued when the play premiered on the stage of London's Palace Theater in July 2016 "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child"(Harry Potter and the Cursed Child). The performance is currently playing to a full house, so hurry up and buy tickets and come to London, to the Covent Garden area, if you want to see the end of the grandiose epic with your own eyes.
In the photo: Palace Theater, where the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is being performed
According to the author's idea, the play tells about the fate of the children of the main characters 19 years after the events described in the seventh book. On July 31, 2016, exactly on Rowling’s 51st birthday, sales of the new book started, after which the “mother” of the most famous wizard told the media that this creation finally ends the story of Harry Potter and there will definitely not be a continuation.
11 interesting facts about the author and books about Harry Potter:
As a child, Rowling received the nickname “rolling pin” due to her consonant surname.
Joan tried to enter the famous Oxford University, but failed the exams.
In addition to French, Joan studied Latin at the university, which helped her when composing magic spells for the book.
According to Rowling herself, she has the character and temperament suitable for a writer: “I am absolutely happy alone, writing.”
Eight films based on the books have grossed more than $7 billion worldwide.
Fans at the premiere of the new Harry Potter book. Photo www.mnn.com
Books "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" from the first thousand copies are valued by collectors at £25,000 each.
After release last movie Joan created a special website, pottermore.com, to track news about Harry Potter.
@jk_rowling – official account JK Rowling is on Twitter, but new posts appear there infrequently. Her Official page on Facebook – www.facebook.com/JKRowling.
The Harry Potter brand is currently valued at $15 billion.
Poster for the film "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". Photo collider.com
Rowling is the first billionaire in history to make her fortune solely through writing.
At the same time, in August 2016, Joan dropped out of the Forbes list of billionaires, having donated about 16% of her capital (more than $160 million) to charity.
In the footsteps of Harry Potter: iconic places for fans of the epic
Pictured: the same platform 9 ¾ at St Pancras Station.
Having signed a film contract with Warner Brothers, JK Rowling insisted that all filming take place exclusively in the UK. Thanks to this, a lot of places have appeared in England, one way or another connected with the name of Harry Potter. We list the most convenient in terms of location and the most interesting of them:
1. Platform 9 ¾
Perhaps we should start the list with London and the world famous platform 9 ¾ at St Pancras Station. It was from here that young Harry took the magical express to Hogwarts Castle, marking the beginning of all subsequent adventures.
How to get there: go to King's Cross St. Pancras metro station and follow the signs. Finding this mythical platform is not difficult: it is located between platforms 4 and 5 and there is always a queue of tourists near it, eager to take a photo with a trolley half disappearing into the wall.
Price: for free. You will be given a special prop on the spot: a scarf Hogwarts school And magic wand, and you'll be able to take a free photo next to the cart (so be sure to bring a partner). At the same time, all participants in the action are photographed by an employee of the attraction, and if you wish, you can print ready-made photographs for a fee.
2. Christ Church College
In the city of Oxford, located near London, there are several places where the Harry Potter films were filmed. But perhaps the most popular of them is Christ Church College. We saw the college staircase in the first film: freshmen climbed it to the Great Hall of Hogwarts, the prototype of which, by the way, was the local dining hall. Many scenes were also filmed in the college courtyard.
How to get there: It is equally convenient to get from Oxford to London by bus or train. The journey will take from 1 hour (by train) to 2-2.5 hours (by bus). The college is open to the public from Monday to Saturday from 9.00 to 17.00 and on Sunday from 14.00 to 17.00. It would be a good idea to check the opening hours for viewing the premises in advance, as the schedule on the College website changes weekly, so plan your visit in advance: http://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/plan-your-visit/opening-times
In the photo: above - the stairs of Hogwarts School (still from the film), below - the great hall of Hogwarts School (college dining hall).
3.
Also in Oxford you can look into the building Bodleian Library, which appeared in 3 films at once: “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (2001), “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (2002) and “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (2002) Goblet of Fire" (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2005).
The oldest medieval library in Europe, currently owned by Oxford University, was transformed into the Hogwarts library in the film.
How to get there: The library is located at Broad St, Oxford OX1 3BG. It is open from Monday to Sunday at school time, but before your trip be sure to check if you are visiting during the holiday period when the building is closed to the public:
Price: Entrance tickets (reader passes, to be precise) start from £5.40. Flash photography is strictly prohibited.
In the photo: above - Hogwarts Library (still from the film), below - the interior of the Bodleian Library.
4. Leadenhall Market
Leadenhall Market– one of the most beautiful indoor markets victorian era, located in the City of London. However, for Harry Potter lovers, this market is attractive because it is here that part of the magical Diagon Alley has been recreated, which can be accessed through the Leaky Cauldron bar, also located here. So, be sure to check out 42 Bull's Head Passage: the blue door of this real-life store served as the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron.
How to get there: Address: Gracechurch St, London EC3V 1LT. Nearest metro stations: Monument Tube Station (4 minutes walk) and Bank Tube Station (5 minutes walk).
Price: for free. On weekends everyone local shops closed.
In the photo: above - Leadenhall Market, below - the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron.
5. Warner Bros. Studio
In the town of Watford, half an hour's drive from London, there are studio pavilions Warner Bros., where all 8 parts of the Harry Potter film were filmed over the course of a decade. In 2012, the film studio turned into a museum accessible to all Potter fans. Here you can feel like a student at Hogwarts and feel the spirit of magic: walk around the Great Hall of the school, go into Dumbledore’s office, meet magical creatures (it’s a pity that they are in the form of sculptures and models), hone the skill of magic spells and even try the famous butterbeer. By the way, in April 2013 the museum was also visited by members royal family: Prince William with Kate Middleton, as well as Prince Harry.
How to get there: There is a proprietary bus service to the studio from nearby Watford Junction railway station (return ticket costs £2.50)
So, don't hesitate for a moment and go on a trip to the Harry Potter places right now. After all, even if you turn your nose up at fairy tales, it’s nice for each of us to return to childhood for a moment and feel like an omnipotent wizard.
Joanne RowlingAt midnight on July 31, 2016, a new book about the boy who lived, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, was published. It’s worth admitting that all of us, with the exception of the most ardent fans, had already forgotten our favorite characters and, in general, were looking forward to holding a new work by JK Rowling in our hands.
Rowling originally conceived Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as a screenplay for production at London's Palace Theatre. The text was adapted for the stage by playwright Jack Thorne and directed by John Tiffany. The result was a performance in two parts, with a total duration of about five hours. The pre-premiere run with the audience took place back in June 2016, however, thanks to the authority of JK Rowling, who spoke on her Instagram account with a request to keep the secret and not reveal the plot, there were no spoilers (which very rare). Spectators of the rehearsal limited themselves to general delight at what they saw. As a result, 175 thousand tickets for the performance were sold in a matter of days, and many of those who bought them admitted that they would go to the theater for the first time in their lives. Isn't this real magic? The official premiere of the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” took place a few hours before the start of sales of the book of the same name, which Rowling announced as the official 8th part of the “Harry Potter series,” which further incited Harry Potter fans.
The action of the book, like the play, takes place 19 years after the events described in The Deathly Hallows. Harry and his friends have grown up, and in the center of the plot is not a boy, or rather a man with a scar, but his son ─ Albus Severus Potter.
JK Rowling was more than pleased with the production, but noted that this time the story about Harry is really the last - everything has already been said and there is absolutely no need to turn your favorite fairy tale into a soap opera. Indeed, it will be quite difficult for readers who are accustomed to the old characters to accept the new ones. On the other hand, Rowling promised the same thing after the release of the seventh book of the Potter series.
It is noteworthy that new story about Harry Potter was released on the birthday of the writer herself and her main character. Yes, yes, perhaps few people paid attention to it, but Harry Potter was born on the same day as Joan herself - July 31st. There are several other facts that even the most devoted fans of the Harry Potter saga probably did not know.
Joan started writing at age 6
Joan first thought about a career as a writer at the age of 6. Then she wrote the book “Rabbit” (it’s not hard to guess who the main character was). The first and not very impartial critic was the mother of the future writer. She praised her daughter for her first steps in the literary field, after which Joan, confident in her congeniality, prepared to immediately go to the publishing house to publish her debut work. Then the girl was dissuaded from this idea. And who knows, perhaps we would have heard about it much earlier.
By the way, “Harry Potter” and “Rabbit” are not the only works of the writer. Having finished, as it seemed to her, with Potter, Joan decided to try herself in the field of literature for adults. In 2012, she published the book “The Casual Vacancy.” The BBC made a mini-series based on this work. However, this success seemed paltry compared to the enormous popularity of Harry Potter. The situation was slightly corrected by a series of books about detective Cormoran Strike, which sold in large quantities. Here, however, there is one remark: few people directly associate these books with Rowling’s name, because she published them under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith).
Hermione Rowling wrote from herself
In one of her many conversations with journalists, Rowling admitted that many of the characters in Potter are no coincidence. For example, Professors Snape and Lockhart are based on acquaintances of the writer, although both characters are slightly exaggerated. But she saved Hermione Rowling “for dessert,” because Joan wrote herself as the smartest girl in the Harry Potter story. As a child, the creator of Potter was an equally diligent student, she strove to gain as much knowledge as possible and did not tolerate any hooligan behavior at all. True, as Rowling claims, Hermione is much wiser than she was at that age.
12 publishers refused to publish the first Harry Potter book
JK Rowling finished her first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, in 1995. The literary agent who agreed to represent her after much persuasion sent the manuscript to 12 publishing houses, but it was rejected by all of them. Only a year later the manuscript was accepted by the small London publishing house Bloomsbury, although it Chief Editor Even after the book was approved, he was sure that Rowling would not make much money from children's books, and advised her to find a permanent job.
She was offered to take a male pseudonym
As you know, Rowling had to run around to publishing houses before Bloomsbury finally accepted the first book about Harry Potter (thus the publishing house secured income for many years to come not only for Rowling, but also for itself). But in one of the “short-sighted” publishing houses, Joan was offered to take a male pseudonym, or even publish her work anonymously, fearing that boys would not want to read an adventure novel written by a woman. Oh, how wrong they were! However, Joan, many years later, still followed the advice.
JK Rowling is the first billionaire writer
Today the writer is the first dollar billionaire in the world who made their fortune through writing. This is a doubly record, considering that we're talking about about children's literature.
Rowling's Dementors were Inspired by Depression
Before she became rich and famous, JK Rowling was an ordinary woman who, moreover, found herself in a very deplorable situation. At the age of 25, Joan divorced her husband after a short and exhausting marriage and was left with a small daughter in her arms. 7 years after graduating from university, she felt like “the biggest loser.” Total lack of money, lack of stable work and others life difficulties, which lie in wait for every average single mother, even in such a prosperous country as Great Britain, could not but affect the morale of the future star of children's literature. Rowling ended up in a specialized hospital with a diagnosis of clinical depression. Subsequently, she admitted to journalists that the creation of dementors, perhaps the most terrible characters in the Harry Potter saga, was inspired by the state of melancholy and the feeling of absolute hopelessness that she experienced during her illness.
Contributed to a sharp increase in demand for pet owls
The Harry Potter books and then films dramatically increased the popularity of owls as pets in the UK. However, many of their owners, alas, initially did not realize that these birds are not at all intended to be kept at home and one of their most unpleasant features is a bad smell that cannot be drowned out by anything. As a result, for short term A very sad statistic appeared: the majority of domestic owls were simply abandoned, and the unfortunate birds ended up either in special shelters or even on the street, where they were doomed to death. A similar story, by the way, happened earlier ─ after the release of the film “101 Dalmatians,” when at first everyone bought dogs of this breed en masse, and after some time they put them out on the street.
It's no coincidence that the magic platform is located at King's Cross Station
It is no coincidence that platform 9¾, from which the train to Hogwarts leaves, is located at one of London's largest stations. It was there that Rowling's parents met. Therefore, since childhood, this place has been one of the most magical for her. By the way, Joan’s mother died of multiple sclerosis, just when the writer was just starting to work on the first book about Harry Potter. Joan didn't even have time to tell her mother about her affair. But the pain of loss has found creative expression: her hero, Harry Potter, in the book deeply experiences the death of her parents, and these are not fictitious feelings ─ in them Rowling describes what is well known to her personally.
Everyone pronounces Voldemort's name wrong.
It turns out that we all pronounce the name of the main villain of the Potter series, Lord Voldemort (or, as we are more familiar, Voldemort) incorrectly. In one of the interviews, the author of the novel clarified that she “always forgets to mention one little thing” - the letter “t” in the name of the Dark Lord is “silent.” That is, it would be correct to call him Voldemort. However, “I am sure that I ─ only person, who pronounces his name that way,” Rowling added. The name Voldemort comes from French words meaning "escape from death" and his main goal is to defeat death. In the second Harry Potter novel, Rowling shows us that the phrase "I am Lord Voldemort" is an anagram of "Tom Marvolo Riddle", which is his real name.
'Harry Potter' got kids to pick up books
The penultimate Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was released on July 21, 2007, and sold 11 million copies on its first day. Thus, Rowling's previous record for the fastest-selling book of all time was broken. But when the circulation of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” had just arrived in bookstores, the publisher, in order to avoid absenteeism, asked bookstore owners not to sell the book until schools closed in the evening. In addition, Rowling, without suspecting it, provoked a craving for reading in general among the global majority of children - along with the popularity of Harry Potter, sales of other works for children, such as The Chronicles of Narnia by C. Lewis and many, many others.
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