Joan Kathleen Rowling is a British novelist and film producer, best known for the best-selling Harry Potter series in history, and chose the name "J.K. Rowling" to resemble her middle name the first letter of her grandmother's name, after a suggestion from the publishing house to quickly become famous.
Rowling went from being divorced on unemployment benefits from the British government to the world's richest writer, living in a luxurious Scottish castle built in the 19th century, selling more than $500 million, translating into more than 80 languages, including Arabic, and earning an average annual earnings of $100 million.
Rowling's political ideas lean to the left, even donating £2008 million to the Labour campaign in <>, and has several tendencies that have exposed her to massive criticism, including her lack of support for "transgender" people, her views on "gender identity" and allowing transgender men into spaces reserved for women.
Birth and upbringing
Joan Kathleen Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 in the United Kingdom to a middle-class family, her father worked as a Rolls-Royce aircraft engineer, his name was Peter James Rowling, her mother Anne, and she has a sister born 23 months later.
Her family decided to move to Winterborn, where she received her primary education at St. Michel's School, then secondary at Wideden School.
She lived her childhood among rabbits and her wide imagination, and she spent her day reading and raising rabbits, and from the intensity of her attachment to her, she wrote her first story "The Rabbit" at the age of six.
Her maternal grandfather is Louis Folan, a French Order of War Cross. Her mother died after a long 10-year illness, and Rowling did not have the opportunity to tell her mother about her novel series, which left a deep impression on her soul that she embodied in the Harry Potter series in detail.
Study and scientific training
Rowling began writing at the age of six with her story "The Rabbit", and then wrote her first novel at the age of 14, "The Seven Cursed Diamonds and Their Owners". Throughout her studies, she was known for her poor level and lack of concentration due to her obsession with fairy tales.
Rowling studied French literature at the University of Exeter, and spent a year of her studies in Paris, and even after entering the university her academic level remained low, and she was trying to escape from her monotonous lifestyle in reading books and fairy tales, with simple attempts at writing, but her writings remained locked in drawers and was her only reader.
The first 3 Rolling books of her series reached $480 million in revenue in 3 years (French)
Literary experience
Rowling worked as a translator secretary at Amnesty International in London in 1990, and her reading led her to be fluent in native English as well as French, with her distinctive writing style and eloquent interest in linguistic structures, terminology and expressions.
On one of her trips from Manchester by train to London, she came to mind the fairy tale of the Harry Potter series about a magician boy at a school for magicians, and spent her journey imagining the dimensions of that story because she had no pen in her hands.
In the same year, she moved to Portugal to teach English, where she married Portuguese journalist Jorge Arantes in 1992, with whom she gave birth to a daughter named Jessica, before divorcing him in 1995, to move to Edinburgh, Scotland and live close to her sister Diane, and at the time she was struggling to make ends meet.
From the beginning, Rowling learned that she would write the novel in 7 parts, and it took her to work on the first part alone for 5 years, during which time her mother died, leaving a great impact on her.
Rowling returned to writing again to overcome her grief over the loss of her mother, and despite her prolific writing, she would dispose of what she wrote in the desk drawer or end up in the garbage.
Rowling spent the day working in the morning to train to be a French teacher, writing at night while listening to Tchaikovsky's tracks, looking for places where her daughter could sleep at the time of writing, and for her that period in which she said was a "failure" in her life allowed her to discharge her energy to focus on writing.
Joanne was 30 years old, jobless and living on government support, spending every minute of her day writing the Harry Potter series; at home, in a café and everywhere.
During that difficult period of her life, she completed the first 3 parts of the novel, trying to sell it in publishing houses, but was repeatedly rejected, calling the novel "silly that no one will care about."
She agreed to publish her novel by a publishing house, because the owner's 8-year-old daughter read Rowling's story and liked it so much, that she urged her father to adopt it, until he reluctantly agreed.
This story written by J.K. Rowling on the Train was the first installment of the Harry Potter series entitled "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" in 1997, of which only 1000,1500 copies were published for a pittance of just £<>,<> for the young author.
She had to change the title of her first book from "The Philosopher's Stone" to "The Sorcerer's Stone" in order to publish it in the United States.
Rowling recalls that the response of the publishing house, which approved her novel and asked her to send the rest of the parts, is that it is the best letter she receives in her life, and that it is the major turning point in her life.
Teenagers from India during the launch event of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" at a Chennai mall in 2016 (Getty Images)
The Turning Point
Her books quickly became famous and achieved huge sales in 1999 in the United Kingdom and America, and then became a global symbol of literature, especially after the first 3 parts of her famous series "Harry Potter" won the first three places in the list of "New York Times" bestsellers.
In July 2000, the fourth installment, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, became the fastest-selling book in history.
On the same date, the revenues of the first 3 books of its series reached $ 480 million in 3 years, and more than 35 million copies were printed in more than 80 different languages, and the fourth book was printed 5.3 million copies, increased by 1.8 after the first edition was not enough.
She then married British anesthesiologist Neil Murray, with whom she had son David and daughter Mackenzie.
In June 2003, Rowling released the fifth installment, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," followed by the sixth installment, "Harry Potter and the Hybrid Prince" in 2005, which sold more than 6.9 million copies in America in just the first 24 hours, making it the largest book opening in history.
Her books were burned by Christian protesters claiming they promoted magic.
The seventh book, "Harry Potter and the Death Hallows" of her series, was the most pre-ordered book from Amazon, Nobel and Barnes, and by the end of her series Rowling ended 17 years of a journey she lived with Harry Potter, from inside the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh.
The Harry Potter series was made into films at the turn of the millennium, all of which made huge profits in cinema, with the last two films produced in 2010 and 2011.
From fantasy to reality
After Rowling finished the Harry Potter series, she began working on books under the category "Myths-Fantasy", and released five stories in November 5, donating the proceeds to a charity.
In 2012, Rowling decided to change her writing style, which was aimed at teenagers in fantasy worlds, and released a nonfiction book for adults in the style of black comedy, but it was not as successful as its predecessors.
In 2013, the novel "The Cuckoo Call" was published under a pseudonym in order to obtain real and honest criticism, and the novel was not popular, but in return it received positive comments and good evaluation, and soon the sales of the book increased immediately after the identity of the writer was revealed.
Cover of "Amazing Beasts: Dumbledore's Secrets" by J.K. Rowling (Al Jazeera)
Screenwriter
That same year, Rowling announced her return to the "world of magic" and wrote the film series "Amazing Monsters", a series of adventures that took place before the time of Harry Potter, in collaboration with Warner Bros., the first installment of which was released in November 2016.
She wrote the second film, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018), followed by Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore's Secrets (2022).
Death threats
Rowling has been subjected to death threats following her statements about "transgenders", posting an article on her website in 2020 in which she wrote, "When the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms open to any man who thinks or feels like a woman... It opens the door to all men who want to enter." She wrote a lengthy statement about why she was "concerned about the activity of new converts."
The announcement was followed by fierce boycotts of her literary and artistic works, including books, films and even the game "Hogwarts Legacy", and her position was said to be "transphobia", and she was even criticized by actors of the Harry Potter series, such as Daniel Radcliffe, Robert Grint and Emma Watson.
On September 14, 2020, her book "Blood Disorder" caused a violent uproar, representing an investigator looking for a serial killer disguised as a woman, who aims to hunt down and kill women, some of whom considered it a hate book against "trans men."
Rowling received support from actor Ralph Vines, who played Voldemort, who described the abuse she received as "disgusting and horrific".
Rowling said her remarks were not phobias, that she respected "the right of every transgender person to live in any way they feel comfortable" and that she wanted transgender people to be "free from discrimination and abuse," but she did not stop expressing her beliefs on the subject. "There were people coming to my house where my children live after my address was posted online," she said.
A rare copy of the book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" at Christie's auction house in London (Reuters)
Literature
Rowling has written a large number of books, the most important of which is the 7-part Harry Potter series.
She has written other books on the stories of characters in the Harry Potter series, including:
- "Quidditch Through the Ages" in 2001.
- "Amazing Beasts and Where to Find Them" 2001.
- "Tales of Biddle the Poet" 2008.
Her books then took the curve of crime and mystery, targeting the real world of adults, including:
- Black comedy book "Vacant Position" in 2012.
- "The Cuckoo Call" is the first novel in the series "Cormore Strike" in 2013.
- "Silkworm" is the second novel in the series "The Cormore Strike" in 2014.
- "The Profession of Evil" is the third novel in the series "The Cormore Strike" 2015.
- "Deadly White" is the fourth novel from the 2018 series "Cormore Strike".
- "Troubled Blood" is the fifth novel in the 2020 Cormore Strike series.
- "Heart of Black Ink" is the sixth and longest novel from the "Cormoor Strike" series in 2022.
- "The Running Grave" is the seventh novel in the series "Cormore Strike" in 2023.
Other books
- "The Ikapoge", the first children's fairy tale after the 2020 Harry Potter series, was launched for free online to entertain children confined to homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rowling signing copies of her seventh and final book of the Harry Potter series at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles in 2007 (Reuters)
Achievements
J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series has achieved great revolution, and because of it it has received several awards and ranks, including:
- Her sixth book of the Harry Potter series surpassed 6.9 million copies within the first 24 hours of its release on the market.
- Her seventh book achieved the highest pre-demand in the market.
- Forbes magazine wrote about her as the first writer to make a fortune and become a millionaire by writing books, and ranked 1062,<>nd on her list of the world's richest.
- In November 2001, Chris Columbus directed a film about her first book in the series, which was released in the first week of its distribution in 8200,93 cinemas, grossing more than $5.<> million, breaking the record for the defending champion who preceded The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
- In February 2013, Rowling was ranked 13th on BBC Four's list of the UK's strongest women.
- She won the British Book Award.
- She received the Edinburgh Prize.
- It is named among the icons of British culture.
- She launched a charity fund called Volant to support people with multiple sclerosis through the Anne Rowling Clinic (after her mother) Neurology in Edinburgh.
- She founded and chaired Lumos, an international children's charity that fights for every child's right to a family by changing care systems around the world.