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J. K. Rowling

Joanne "Jo" Rowling, OBE (born 31 July 1965) is an English fiction writer who writes under the pen name of J. K. Rowling (see below). Rowling became famous as author of the Harry Potter fantasy series, which has gained international attention, won multiple awards, and sold over 300 million copies worldwide. In February 2004, Forbes magazine estimated her fortune at £576 million (just over US$1 billion), making her the first person ever to become a $US billionaire by writing books.

Early life

Joanne Rowling was born in South Gloucestershire, England on 31 July, 1965, on the outskirts of Bristol. There is some confusion as to exactly where; Rowling has said she was born in Chipping Sodbury, whereas her birth certificate apparently claims she was born in the Cottage Hospital at Yate . Her sister Di was born when Rowling was almost two . The family moved to Winterbourne, Bristol when Rowling was four, and then to Tutshill, near Chepstow, Wales at the age of nine. She attended secondary school at Wyedean School and College. In December 1990, Rowling's mother succumbed to a decade-long battle with multiple sclerosis.

After studying French and Classics at the University of Exeter, with a year of study in Paris, she moved to London to work as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International. During this period she had the idea for a story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry while she was on a four-hour, delayed train trip between Manchester and London. When she had reached her destination, she began writing immediately .

Rowling then moved to Portugal to teach English as a foreign language. While there, she married Portuguese television journalist Jorge Arantes on 16 October 1992. They had one child, Jessica, before divorcing in 1993. Their daughter was named after Rowling's heroine, Jessica Mitford.

In December, 1994, she and her daughter moved to be near her sister in Edinburgh. Unemployed and living on state benefits, she completed her first novel, doing some of the work in local Edinburgh cafes whenever she could get Jessica to fall asleep. There was a rumour that she wrote in local cafés in order to escape from her unheated flat, but in a 2001 BBC interview Rowling remarked, "I am not stupid enough to rent an unheated flat, in Edinburgh, in mid-winter; it had heating".

Harry Potter

File:Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.jpg
The first Harry Potter novel
Main article: Harry Potter

Harry Potter books

In 1995, Rowling completed her manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on an old manual typewriter. Upon the enthusiastic response of Bryony Evans, a young reader who had been asked to review the book's first three chapters, the Fulham-based Christopher Little Literary Agents agreed to represent Rowling in her quest for a publisher. The book was handed to twelve publishing houses, all of which rejected it. . A year later she was finally given the greenlight (and a £1500 advance) by the editor Barry Cunningham from the small publisher Bloomsbury. Although Cunningham happily agreed to publish the book, he claims he advised her to get a day job, as she had little chance of making money in children's books. She then received an £8000 grant from the Scottish Arts Council to enable her to continue writing . The following spring, an auction was held in the United States for the rights to publish the novel, and was won by Scholastic Inc, who paid Rowling more than $100,000. Rowling has said she "nearly died" when she heard the news. In June, 1997, Bloomsbury published Philosopher's Stone with an intial print run of only 1000 copies, 500 of which were distributed to libraries. Today, such copies are valued at between £16,000 and £25,000 each. Five months later it won its first award, a Nestle Smarties Book Prize. In February, the novel won the prestigious British Book Award for Children's Book of the Year, and, later the Children's Book Award. In October 1998, Scholastic published Philosopher's Stone in the States under the title of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a change Rowling now claims she regrets and would have fought if she had been in a better position at the time. .

In December 1999, the third Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,won the Smarties Prize, in the process making Rowling the first person to win the award three times running. She later withdrew the fourth Harry Potter novel from contention to allow other books a fair chance. In January, 2000, Prisoner of Azkaban won the inaugural Whitbread Children's Book of the Year award, though it narrowly lost the Book of the Year prize to Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf. That June, the Queen honored Rowling by making her an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

To date, six of the seven volumes of the Harry Potter series, one for each of Harry's school years, have already been published and all have broken sales records. Upon its publication, both the fourth novel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and the sixth, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, were the fastest-selling books in history.

Rowling is currently writing the seventh and final book of the series. Its name is currently unknown.

Harry Potter films

In October, 1998, Warner Brothers purchased the film rights to the first two novels for a seven-figure sum. A film version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released on November 16, 2001 and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on November 15, 2002. Both were directed by Chris Columbus. The June 4, 2004 film version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was directed by Alfonso Cuarón. The fourth film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was directed by yet another new director, Mike Newell. A film of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is now in production, under British television director David Yates, and new screenwriter Michael Goldenberg, projected for release on July 13, 2007.

The first four films were scripted by Steve Kloves; Rowling assisted him in the writing process, ensuring that his scripts did not contradict future books in the series. She says she has told him more about the later books than anybody else, but not everything. She has also said that she has told Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane certain secrets about their characters that have not yet been revealed. Steven Spielberg was approached to direct the first film, but dropped out. The press has repeatedly claimed that Rowling played a role in his departure, but Rowling stated on her website that she has no say in who directs the films.

After Harry Potter

Harry Potter has made Rowling a well known and a very successful author, but after Rowling finishes the final Harry Potter book, she plans to continue writing, possibly using a pen name.

In 2006, Rowling revealed that she had completed a few short stories and another children's book (a "political fairy story") about a monster, aimed at a younger audience than Harry Potter readers.

She is not planning to write an eighth Harry Potter book, but has suggested she might publish an "encyclopaedia" of the Harry Potter world consisting of all her unpublished material and notes. Any profits from such a book would be given to charity.

Her name

Rowling's full name is "Joanne Rowling", not, as is often assumed, "Joanne Kathleen Rowling". Before publishing her first volume, Bloomsbury feared that the target group of young boys might be reluctant to buy books written by a female author. They requested that Rowling use two initials, rather than reveal her first name. As she had no middle name, she chose K from her grandmother's name Kathleen, as the second initial of her pseudonym. The name Kathleen has never been part of her legal name. She calls herself "Jo" and claims, "No one ever called me 'Joanne' when I was young, unless they were angry." Her surname is pronounced like "rolling" (IPA: /rəʊ.lɪŋ/).

Current life and family

In 2001, Rowling purchased a luxurious 19th-century mansion, Killiechassie House, on the banks of the River Tay in Perthshire, Scotland. Rowling also owns a Georgian style house in London, on a street where, according to The Guardian, the average price of a house is £4.27 million ($11 million), possibly including an underground swimming pool and 24-hour security .

On 26 December 2001, Rowling married Dr. Neil Murray, an anaesthetist, in a private ceremony at her home in the Perthshire village of Aberfeldy . Their son David was born shortly after Rowling began writing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Rowling took a break from working on the novel to care for him in his early infancy . Rowling's youngest child, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray, was born in January of 2005 .

Charity

All proceeds from the sales of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages go to the UK Comic Relief charity.

Rowling has contributed money and support to many other charitable causes, especially research and treatment of multiple sclerosis, from which her mother died in 1990. This death heavily affected her writing, according to Rowling.

In January 2006, Rowling went to Bucharest to raise funds for the Children's High Level Group, an organization devoted to enforcing the human rights of children, particularly in eastern Europe.

Television

Rowling on The Simpsons.

Rowling made a guest appearance as herself on the American cartoon show The Simpsons, in a special British-themed episode entitled "The Regina Monologues". Producer Russell T. Davies asked Rowling to pen an episode of the upcoming season of Doctor Who; though Rowling was "amused by the suggestion, but simply have the time" . In a July 2005 interview with the MuggleNet and Leaky Cauldron websites' managers, Rowling revealed that she is a great admirer of Aaron Sorkin's work on the American TV show The West Wing.

Lawsuits

Rowling has been involved in several lawsuits over the Harry Potter series.

Nancy Stouffer

In the late 1990s Nancy Stouffer, an author of children's books published in the 1980s, began to charge publicly that Rowling's books were based on her books, including The Legend of Rah and the Muggles and Larry Potter and His Best Friend Lilly. Stouffer sued Rowling and Scholastic, Inc. in U.S. District Court, also naming Time Warner as a party. Rowling, Scholastic and Warner Bros. sued Stouffer in New York, asking the court to judge that there was no infringement of Stouffer's trademarks or copyright. Rowling and her co-litigants argued that much of the evidence that Stouffer presented was fraudulent, and asked for sanctions and attorneys' fees as punishment. In September 2002 the court found in Rowling's favour, stating that Stouffer had lied to the court and falsified and forged documents to support her case. Stouffer was fined US$50,000 and ordered to pay part (but not all) of the plaintiffs' costs. In January 2004 it was reported that Stouffer's appeal against the judgement had been rejected. The appeals court agreed that Stouffer's claims were properly dismissed because "no reasonable juror could find a likelihood of confusion as to the source of the two parties' works". Stouffer was also ordered to pay the costs of the appeal. A report of the judgement (requires subscription) can be found at Entertainment Law Digest. The 2002 judgement can be found here.

New York Daily News

On 19 June 2003 Rowling and her publisher Scholastic announced that they would sue the New York Daily News for $100 million because the newspaper had printed information on her work Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix before the book's official release date. The novel was due for release on Saturday 21 June, but the newspaper published a plot summary and short quotes on the previous Wednesday. An accompanying image even revealed two pages from the book with legible text. However, the story was complicated further when it was revealed that the paper had purchased the book from a health store whose owner received the novels wholesale and decided to place them in the window. The man claimed he was unaware he was supposed to wait until that Saturday.

The Bashu Publishing House, Chengdu

In 2003, unauthorised Chinese-language "sequels" to the Harry Potter series, such as Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon, appeared for sale in the People's Republic of China. These books, written by ghostwriters, contain characters from the works of other authors, including Gandalf from J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and the title character from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Rowling's lawyers successfully took legal action against the publishers, who were forced to pay damages.

Eksmo Publishers

Also in 2003, courts in the Netherlands prevented the distribution of a Dutch translation of Tanya Grotter and the Magical Double Bass, the first of Dmitry Yemets' popular Russian series about a female apprentice wizard, Tanya Grotter. Rowling and her publishers sued, arguing that the Grotter books violate copyright law. Yemets and his original Moscow-based publishers, Eksmo, argued unsuccessfully that the books constitute a parody, permitted under copyright.

Bibliography

(Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages are short booklets purporting to be facsimiles of books mentioned in the novels. Though written under pseudonyms, she has never hidden the fact that she is the author.)

References

  1. About.com. "J.K. Rowling and Neil Murray". Accessed 29 March 2006.
  2. JKR's site; no eighth book Accessed 10 April 2006.
  3. Anelli, Melissa. "TLC Report: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince launch weekend, Edinburgh, Scotland, July 15 - July 17, 2005: Part Two". The Leaky Cauldron, 19 July 2005. Accessed 22 March 2006.
  4. August, Oliver and Malvern, Jack. "Harry Potter Wins an Easy Battle Against Chinese Pirates". The Times of London, 02 November 2002. Accessed 21 March 2006.
  5. BarnesandNoble.com. "Meet the Writers: J. K. Rowling". Accessed 25 March 2006.
  6. BBC News. "Harry Potter books 'plagiarised'". 17 March 2000. Accessed 25 March 2006.
  7. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. "J.K. Rowling: CBC Interview #1". 26 October 2000. Accessed 19 March 2006.
  8. Collinson, Patrick. "Rub shoulders with Brucie for £4.3m, or Tony for £7,250". Guardian Unlimited, 26 April 2005. Accessed 21 March 2006.
  9. ContemporaryWriters.com. "J. K. Rowling". Accessed 23 March 2006.
  10. Davies, Russell T. "J.K. Rowling asked to write an epsiode of Doctor Who". Doctor Who Magazine, Issue 343. 30 April 2004. Accessed 19 March 2006.
  11. Gibbons, Fiachra. "Beowulf slays the wizard". Guardian Unlimited, 26 January 2000, accessed 19 March 2006.
  12. Greig, Geordie. "There would be so much to tell her...". Tatler Magazine, 10 January 2006. Accessed 22 March 2006.
  13. "Harry Potter and Me". BBC Christmas Special, 28 December 2001. Transcribed by "Marvelous Marvolo" and Jimmi Thøgersen. Quick Quotes Quill.org. Accessed 17 March 2006.
  14. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone at IMDb
  15. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at IMDb
  16. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at IMDb
  17. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at IMDb
  18. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at IMDb
  19. The Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator. "Nancy Stouffer ruling upheld". Accessed 25 March 2006.
  20. "J.K. Rowling and Stephen Fry interview". Radio 4, 10 December 2005. Accessed 21 March 2006.
  21. "J.K. Rowling: BBC Online Chat". March 2001. Accessed 19 March 2006.
  22. "J.K. Rowling: 'Fans will be happy'". cBBC Newsround, 02 November 2001. Accessed 21 March 2006.
  23. "J.K. Rowling on Finishing Harry Potter". 11 January 2006. Accessed 19 March 2006.
  24. J.K. Rowling's Official Site. "J. K. Rowling's biography". Accessed 17 March 2006.
  25. J.K. Rowling's Official Site. "JKR gives Birth to Baby Girl". 25 January 2005. Accessed 22 March 2006.
  26. J.K. Rowling's Official Site. "Launch of the Children's High Level Group". 25 January 2006. Accessed 22 March 2006.
  27. J.K. Rowling's Official Site. "MS Society Scotland". Accessed 22 March 2006.
  28. J.K. Rowling's Official Site. "Progress on Book Six". 15 March 2004. Accessed 22 March 2006.
  29. J.K. Rowling's Official Site. "What is the seventh book going to be called?". Accessed 22 March, 2006.
  30. The Harry Potter Lexicon, The Harry Potter books. Accessed 19 March 2006.
  31. The Harry Potter Lexicon, A History of the Books. Accessed 19 March 2006.
  32. The Harry Potter Lexicon, The Muggle Encyclopedia - K. Accessed 21 March 2006.
  33. The Harry Potter Lexicon, The Muggle Encyclopedia - Y. Accessed 17 March 2006.
  34. The Harry Potter Lexicon, Quidditch through the Ages. Accessed 19 March, 2006.
  35. Rare Harry Potter books July 22 2005. Accessed April 9 2006.
  36. Mzimba, Lizo, moderator. "Interview with Steve Kloves and J.K. Rowling". Quick Quotes Quill.org, February 2003. Accessed 21 March 2006.
  37. "The Not Especially Fascinating Life So Far of J. K. Rowling". Accessed 21 March 2006.
  38. "Potter sales record". EOnline, July 18 2005. Accessed 1 April 2006.
  39. Reuters. "Court throws out 'Muggles' claims against Rowling". Accessed 25 March 2006.
  40. Scottish Arts Council Wants Payback November 30 2003. Accessed April 9 2006.
  41. McGinty, Stephen The JK Rowling Story June 16 2003. Accessed April 9 2006.
  42. "Rowling denies vetoing Spielberg". Accessed 3 April 2006.
  43. "Rowling seeks 'Grotter' ban". BBC News, 13 March 2003. Accessed 21 March 2006.
  44. "Rowling v. New York Daily News". Accessed 21 March 2006.
  45. Veritaserum.com, Sorcerer's Stone Book Information. Accessed 19 March 2006.
  46. Watson, Julie and Kellner, Tomas. "J.K. Rowling And The Billion-Dollar Empire". Forbes.com, 26 February 2004. Accessed 19 March 2006.
  47. "Harry Potter has been very good to JK Rowling July 7 2005. Accessed 9 April 2006.
  48. Weeks, Linton. "Charmed, I'm Sure". The Washington Post, 20 October 1999. Accessed 21 March 2006.

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