BIOGRAPHY:

The famous British writer J. K. Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter novels, is also known by many as Robert Galbraith. The author uses this pseudonym to write his equally popular detective stories.

Childhood and youth:

JK Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 in an ordinary family living in the city of Yate (UK). The girl’s father, Peter James Rowling, worked at Rolls-Royce, and her mother, Anne Rowling, was a housewife. When the future writer turned 2 years old, her sister Diana was born. In 1969 the family moved to the village of Winterbourne.

My childhood was truly carefree. Numerous photos of little Joan posted on the Internet confirm this fact. And Rowling herself always remembers her childhood with a smile, as it was filled with fun games with her sister, family comfort and warmth, and the care of her parents. It was they who instilled in the girl a love of literature.

A little-known fact that many researchers miss concerns the beginning of the work of the modern star: Joan wrote her first story at the age of 6 years and from that moment she did not stop creating.

In 1974, the Rowling family moved to the village of Tutshill. The change of residence was a real shock for the 9-year-old child due to the fact that Joan loved her school friends very much and valued them.

After 6 years, a difficult event occurred in the life of the young lady: her mother fell ill. The rapid development of the disease led to the woman soon dying from multiple sclerosis. Having buried her loved one, in 1990 Joan decided to leave Tutshill and moved to London.

Having defended her diploma in French linguistics, the young girl received the position of secretary at Amnesty International. During the same period, Rowling fell in love for the first time, so a year later she and her boyfriend moved to live in Manchester.

One day, it was on a train heading from Manchester to London that the writer came up with the image of the same boy-wizard in round glasses familiar to all fans – Harry Potter.

“Harry Potter”

The start of Rowling’s career is considered to be the year of publication of the first part of the novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997). The circulation was 1000 copies. The book won the Nesyle Smarties Book Prize in November. In 1998, Joan won the international British Book Award.

After such success and recognition of the writer’s work, an auction was held in the United States, the lot at which was the right to publish “The Philosopher’s Stone.” The bidding was won by the American publishing house Scholastic Incorporation, which paid $105 thousand. In the summer of 1998, the continuation of the novel, “The Chamber of Secrets”, was published; in 2000, the world saw the third part – “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”. The fourth book, titled “The Goblet of Fire,” broke all sales records: 373 thousand books were sold in 24 hours.

The fifth part of the acclaimed saga “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” was published in 2003. Another 2 years later, the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, broke all previous sales records: the volume amounted to 9 million in 24 hours. In 2007, the seventh part of the novel about a boy wizard, “Deathly Hallows,” was completed.

To date, all 7 parts of the fantastic saga have been translated into 70 languages. In addition, Rowling’s novels have been adapted into excellent films, directed by Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuaron and David Yates.

In the summer of 2016, the premiere of the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” took place in London. Contrary to numerous rumors and fan assumptions, this work is not a full-fledged eighth part of the novel, but only a script for a theatrical production. The real authors of “The Cursed Child” are Jack Thorne, John Tiffany.

The work is a new story. It shows actions taking place 19 years after the events described in Deathly Hallows.

Rowling’s portal Wizardingworld.com has launched new applications, which are collections of additions to the main seven parts of the Potter series. The plots of these stories tell about several minor characters, the history of the appearance of the Azkaban prison, and the Hogwarts school of magic.

The encyclopedia “The Wizarding World of J. K. Rowling” has already been created based on the universes created by the writer and the film adaptations of her novels.

Rowling’s other books:

In addition to novels about the little wizard from Hogwarts, the writer became famous thanks to other works.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the only book published under the pseudonym Newt Scamander. This is a textbook on magical zoology.

Joan transferred most of the money received from the sale of the book (about £13 million) to the account of the largest organizations involved in children’s charities. Rowling became the screenwriter of the film adaptation of the novel – 2 parts of the trilogy were released under the titles “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” and “The Crimes of Grindelwald”. The plot of the film describes the events that took place 65 years before the appearance of the boy Harry.

The fairy tale “The Shutikha Hare and Her Grumpy Stump” was written between 2007 and 2009. For this masterpiece of world literature for children, Prince Charles awarded the author the Order of the British Empire.

The novel “The Casual Vacancy” is Rowling’s first work in the social drama genre for adults and teenagers.

The stories about the private detective Cormoran Strike, which the writer publishes under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, created a lot of noise. In addition to The Cuckoo’s Calling, the series included The Silkworm, In the Service of Evil, Deadly White and Bad Blood.

In 2020, fans of the writer’s work appreciated the first children’s novel since Harry Potter, called “The Ickabog.” As Joan herself said, this work was written almost 10 years ago between the Potter books. After completing the saga, the author decided to take a creative break and postponed publication of the story, reading it only to her children.

During self-isolation, Rowling published a fairy tale for young readers for free. She selected 34 illustrations for the printed publication on a competitive basis from among the submitted children’s drawings – the winners of the competition received copies of the novel signed by the author and other prizes. The writer donated the fee for the book to the Volant charity foundation, which helps those affected by COVID-19.

Now Joan is a successful literary figure, screenwriter and film producer. She is among the top 10 highest-paid authors in the world, along with James Patterson and Stephen King. Rowling’s literary legacy is valued at hundreds of billions of dollars, and the Harry Potter brand itself is worth $15 billion.

In April 2021, the British writer announced the release of a new children’s book called “The Christmas Pig.” The plot follows the adventures of a boy, Jack, who goes in search of his lost favorite toy animal.

Scandals and accusations of transphobia:

Rowling has been attacked on social media more than once. The writer was suspected of discrimination, racism, ignoring minorities, she was accused of the lack of racial diversity in the novels and implicit approval of slavery in the face of house elves. So Joan declared Dumbledore gay, and the role of Hermione in the production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child went to a black actress.

A particularly loud scandal surrounding Rowling erupted in 2018. A writer was accused of transphobia for liking a tweet that referred to transgender people as “men in dresses.”

Another mistake Joan made in the eyes of the trans community was supporting Maya Forstater at the end of 2019. A tax consultant for the Center for Global Development had her contract not renewed because she argued that people cannot change their biological sex.

The following summer, a writer’s comment using the term “people who menstruate” instead of “woman” was again considered transphobic.

In this wave of hatred, haters began to wish Rowling death, called for her books to be burned, and the largest fan sites severed ties with her. Fatphobia was discovered in the writer’s works, since only negative characters are overweight. And the maniac’s disguise as women in detective stories became the basis for accusations that Joan actively portrays transgender people as aggressors in her novels.

In 2021, Joan again gave rise to harsh criticism. This time the writer commented on the news that now people who have committed sexual violence will be registered in accordance with their gender self-determination. At the same time, the fact that a gender change had occurred or not should have been ignored by the investigative authorities.

By the way, the author’s post with a negative assessment of this phenomenon collected both negative and positive comments. Many expressed their agreement with Rowling’s opinion, but there were also accusations of intolerance.

Against the backdrop of a renewed wave against the writer, the American Quidditch Association announced a decision to change the name of this sport. This team game grew out of Joan’s novels and was adapted for real life.

Representatives of the leagues explained this decision by the need to think about their own space for development. The desire to distance herself from the name of JK Rowling played an important role.

Personal life:

While working at Amnesty International in her youth, Rowling was looking for a new job. So, after reading an advertisement in The Guardian about a teaching vacancy, Joan decided to leave for Portugal.

In the city of Porto, Rowling met her first husband, television journalist Jorge Arantes. Their wedding took place in the fall of 1992, and already in July 1993, the young family had a daughter, Jessica-Isabelle Rowling-Arantes.

Despite the complexity of her relationship with her husband, the woman tried to save the family, but was subjected to scenes of jealousy, domestic violence, and beatings. The writer does not hide such facts in her biography: her husband once beat her and then kicked her out of the house with her daughter.

In December 1993, Joan, with Jessica in her arms (and 3 chapters of Harry Potter already written in her bag), was forced to go to Edinburgh (Scotland) to visit her younger sister.

In 1993, Rowling returned to England. Having become a single mother, she applied for a state benefit (£70), which became the writer’s only income. Despite her poor financial situation, Joan continued to work hard.

Because of the bitter experience in her personal life, the woman did not dare to start a family for a long time. She devoted her time to her daughter and, of course, to creativity. Only 8 years later Joan became a wife again. The writer’s chosen one is anesthesiologist Neil-Michael Murray (5 years younger than her).

In 2001, the couple legalized their relationship, and in 2003 their son David was born. In January 2005, the couple had another child, named Mackenzie. In her first interview after giving birth, Rowling stated that she was truly happy, and the reason for her boundless joy was her beloved children and a sincerely loving man.

JK Rowling now:

Against the background of the latest scandals associated with the name of JK Rowling, the creators of the special episode “Return to Hogwarts”, which premiered in January 2022, did not even invite the author to celebrate the anniversary. Moreover, she did not take any part in the production of the film, although some archival footage of her is involved in the project. Rowling was not involved in the 3rd part of Fantastic Beasts.

By the way, Potter fans were not happy with this state of affairs. Angry posts from Joan’s defenders suggested that the creators of film adaptations of the author’s books come up with their own universe and “cut” it as they please.

Bibliography:

Harry Potter series:

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”
2003 — “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”
2005 — “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
2007 — “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”
2008 — “Quidditch from antiquity to the present day”
2008 — “Tales of Beedle the Bard”

Series of books about Cormoran Strike:

2013 — “The Cuckoo’s Calling”
2014 — “Silkworm”
2015 — “In the Service of Evil”
2018 — “Deadly White”
2020 — “Bad Blood”

Other:

2012 — “Random Vacancy”
2020 — “The Ickabog”
2021 — “The Christmas Pig”

Interesting Facts:

Before the first publication of Harry Potter, it was the American publishing house Scholastic Incorporation that suggested Rowling use a pseudonym. The author chose to add the initials of her grandmother Kathleen to her name, and J. K. Rowling was born.
Rowling admits that today (as when creating her first book) she is inspired by the lyrical concertos of Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The writer says that she writes her masterpieces armed with pen and paper. Only after creating a draft by hand does the author type the text on a computer and then send it to the publishing house.
If there are no sheets of notepad at hand, she writes down thoughts on any objects. For example, Rowling came up with the names of the faculties of the Hogwarts University of Magic on the plane and wrote them down on a disposable paper bag.