Scribd
Upload
181 views2 pages

J.K. Rowling: Biography and Career Highlights

J.K. Rowling is a British author best known for the Harry Potter fantasy series. She wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 1997, which launched the successful seven-book series published between 1997 to 2007. Rowling has also written books for adult audiences like The Casual Vacancy. She was born Joanne Rowling and chose the pen name J.K. Rowling, using her initials. Rowling drew inspiration to write Harry Potter from her mother's death in 1990 and struggled as a single mother before the series brought her fame and fortune.

Uploaded by

Nguyễn Tấn Gia Nguyên
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
181 views2 pages

J.K. Rowling: Biography and Career Highlights

J.K. Rowling is a British author best known for the Harry Potter fantasy series. She wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 1997, which launched the successful seven-book series published between 1997 to 2007. Rowling has also written books for adult audiences like The Casual Vacancy. She was born Joanne Rowling and chose the pen name J.K. Rowling, using her initials. Rowling drew inspiration to write Harry Potter from her mother's death in 1990 and struggled as a single mother before the series brought her fame and fortune.

Uploaded by

Nguyễn Tấn Gia Nguyên
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Overall about J.

K Rowling:
J. K. Rowling is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote Harry Potter, a seven-volume children's
fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The Casual Vacancy (2012) was her first novel for adults;
she writes Cormoran Strike, an ongoing crime fiction series. She has been knighted for services to
literature and philanthropy.

Name
J. K. Rowling was born Joanne Murray, or Joanne Joanne Rowling before her remarriage. Staff at
Bloomsbury Publishing asked that she use two initials rather than her full name. She chose K (for
Kathleen) as the second initial of her pen name.

Publishing Harry Potter
JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone when she was eight years old. The book was
first published in 1997, with an initial print run of 500 copies. In 1998, JK Rowling was writing Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for young readers. Scholastic Corporation bought the US rights for
$105,000 at an auction in Bologna, Italy. The next three books in the series were released between 1998
and 2000.

Some questions the teacher will ask, I think 

What is her life and career?

 Early life and family.

Joanne Rowling was born on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire. Her mother Anne Volant was a Wren
and father Peter ("Pete") James Rowling was a Royal Navy officer. Joanne's first attempt at writing was
inspired by Richard Scarry's creatures in The Wind in the Willows.

 Secondary school and university

Rowling was inspired by her favourite teacher, Lucy Shepherd, who taught structure and precision in
writing. Rowling's home life was complicated by her mother's illness and strained relationship with her
father. She began to smoke, took an interest in alternative rock and adopted Siouxsie Sioux's hair. JK
Rowling studied French and the classics at the University of Exeter. She was an average student,
prioritising her social life over her studies. Biographers attribute her rejection to privilege, as she had
attended a state school rather than a private one.

 Inspiration and mother’s death

JK Rowling was inspired to write Harry Potter by her mother's death in 1990. The Mirror of Erised is
partly about her mother and Harry confronting his own mortality, Rowling has said. She wrote adult
novels while working as a temp but they were never published.

 Marriage, divorce, and single parenthood

In 1992, JK Rowling moved to Portugal to write Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. She
experienced domestic abuse during her marriage to Jorge Arantes. Rowling has spoken of an
estrangement from her father Pete after her mother Anne Mitford's death. Her marriage had failed and
she was jobless with a dependent child; she wrote the book in cafés and lived in squalor.

You might also like