The Life of JK Rowling

The Life of J.K. Rowling: The life of J.K. Rowling wasn’t always easy. At one time J.K. Rowling struggled with money and then one day on a train she came up with the idea of the Harry Potter books and now she is a millionaire. The idea of the Harry Potter books have changed J.K. Rowling’s life forever. J.K. Rowling, whose real name is Joanne Kathleen Rowling, was born on July 31, 1965. She was born just outside of Bristol in Chipping Sodbury in England. At the age of four J.K. Rowling and her family moved to the village Winterbourne which was nearby Chipping Sodbury where she was born. While living in the village of Winterbourne she attended St. Michael’s Primary school. Then at the age of nine she again moved, this time to a town near Chepstow, South Wales called Tutshill where she attended a secondary school called Wyedean School. During her schooling days “Rowling was good with languages, but did not excel at sports and mathematics” (Wikipedia). Actually Joanne Rowling’s or Jo which was what her family called her, favorite subjects were english and foreign language. After secondary school Joanne Kathleen Rowling attended
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Exeter University where she studied French and the classics (Wikipedia). After graduating she moved to Portugal in a city called Porto to teach English as a foreign language. During her time in Portugal she decided to marry Jorge Arantes, a Portuguese television journalist on October 16, 1992. However her mother was not in attendance because in 1990 J.K. Rowling’s mother finally died after a 10 year battle with multiple sclerosis. “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” (Wkipedia) was J.K. Rowling’s reaction to her mother’s death. Jorge and Joanne had one child, a girl, named Jessica who was named after J.K. Rowling’s heroine Jessica Mitford. After a year long marriage, Jorge kicked J.K. Rowling out of the house after a big fight and they eventually divorced in 1993. The next year J.K. Rowling and her daughter Jessica decided to move near her sister Dianne or Di in Edinburgh, Scotland where they still live today (Rowling 312). When she moved to Edinburgh, Scotland J.K. Rowling was unemployed so she was living off state benefits. While living on benefits she was able to complete her first novel. J.K. Rowling has also always been a writer. At the age of five
Roehner 3 or six, J.K. Rowling wrote her first story called “Rabbit”. “Rabbit” was about a rabbit named rabbit who had measles. Later on in her life she attempted to write novels for adults but had very little or no success at all. Then in the year 1990 J.K. Rowling had an idea, the idea of the Harry Potter books. “The idea for Harry—a lonely, downtrodden 11-year-old orphan who learns he is actually a wizard when he is magically invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry—came to Rowling while she was stuck on a delayed train between Manchester and London” (fact monster). It was during this time, when she was writing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, she found out about her mother’s death. She would spend a lot of her time in Edinburgh writing in local cafes hoping at the time that this book would help support her and Jessica because she had been struggling to do so. Finally in 1995, J.K. Rowling was able to finish the first installation of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. This book was all written on an old manual type writer. After she finished writing the book she asked one of her friends Bryony Evans to read the first three chapters of the book. After Bryony Evans finished the three chapters, she gave a very enthusiastic report to J.K. Rowling which began her hunt for a publisher. Not long after the Fulham-based Christopher Little Literary Agents agreed to represent Rowling in her quest for a publisher. The Christopher Little Literary Agents sent
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Rowling’s novel to twelve publishing companies who all rejected the book. Eventually a year later an editor, from a small publishing company Bloomsbury, named Barry Cunningham gave her the green light because his eight year old daughter loved the first chapter and wanted the second (Wikipedia). In 1997, her book was published in England and quickly became a success. Even though the book was an instant success, the road wasn’t always easy. That was because Barry Cunninham advised her to get a day job even though he agreed to publish it because he wasn’t sure how successful it would be and it is difficult to make money off children books. The road may have been difficult but J.K. Rowling’s book was more then just an instant success with children but also with adults. Shortly after the book was was published she received numerous awards such as the British Book Awards’ Children’s Book of the Year and Nestle Smarties Book Prize. Not long after there was an auction in the United States between publishing companies to compete for the rights to Harry Potter, and scholastic won by paying Rowling more then $100,000. Shortly after Scholastic published the book with the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (fact monster). Harry Potter has made J.K. Rowling the richest women in England. Because of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and the US version Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, in the year 2000 J.K. Rowling was making a net of
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30 million dollars. J.K. Rowling also ot an OBE or Order of the British Empire which is a medal of achievement given out by the Queen of England in March of 2001. “At the end of that same year, she married her second husband, Dr. Neil Murray. On March 23, 2003, Rowling's second child, David Gordon Rowling Murray, was born. She gave birth to a baby girl, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray, on January 25, 2005” (fact monster). Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was just the start of what J.K. Rowling said a seven book series. Within the next three years of her first book being published the next three books of the series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), were published. All three books won many awards like the first book and also like the first book they were all among the top sellers. Three years after the fourth book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was released the fifth book of the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was published and shattered the records set by the fourth book. Then about two years later Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was published also shattering records set by the previous book. Today, the Harry Potter books have been such a success that they have been translated into 60 different languages, won many awards, and shattered records of
Roehner 6 books sold (fact monster). In conclusion, the path to success was a rough road for J.K. Rowling. She started off as an English teacher in Portugal where she married and had a kid, got divorced, moved her and her kid to Edinburgh, Scotland where she struggled to support her and her daughter Jessica off state benefits. Even though the road was tough she continued to write and eventually found a publisher who would publish her book and it became an instant success. Now today she J.K. Rowling is not only the richest women in England but one of the richest people in the world.