British writer Joan Rowling: biography, literary activity.
(J. K. Rowling), - British writer.
Aliases: J.K. Rowling, Newt Scamander, Kennyworthy Wisp, Robert Galbraith.
Joanne Rowling was born in the town of Chipping Sodbury in Gloucestershire, near Bristol, became the eldest of two daughters in the family. When the future writer was nine years old, the Rowlings moved to the city of Chepstow in the county of Gwent (Wales). After graduating from high school there in 1983, Rowling entered the University of Exeter, where she studied French. This gave her the opportunity to spend a year in Paris.
After graduating from the university, having received a Bachelor of Arts degree, Rowling moved to London, where she changed several jobs. She spent most of her time in the international human rights organization Amnesty International. In 1990, the future writer moved to Manchester, and at the same time she first came up with the idea of a children's book about a wizard boy. In the same 1990, Rowling's mother died of multiple sclerosis. A few months later, Joan got a job as an English teacher in Porto, the second largest city in Portugal.
In Porto, Rowling met her future husband, television journalist Jorge Arantes. They got married in 1992, from this marriage they had a daughter, Jessica (Jessica). Pretty soon, Rowling and Arantesh broke up: her husband, according to the writer, literally put her and her daughter out of the house. By Christmas 1994, Rowling was back in the UK. Together with her daughter, she moved to Edinburgh, where her younger sister Dee lived at that time. By this time, a significant part of the first novel - "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" - had already been written. In an effort to complete the book, Rowling did not take a permanent job and completed the novel in cafes, including the popular Nicolson's, owned by her relative.
In 1995, Rowling sent a white version of the novel to two literary agents, and the first returned the text almost immediately, not considering it promising, and the second - Christopher Little (Christopher Little) - nevertheless undertook to attach the manuscript. He succeeded a year later: "Harry Potter" was interested in a small London publishing house Bloomsbury. His employee Barry Cunningham (Barry Cunningham) in August 1996 offered the writer a modest advance (1500 pounds), which Rowling readily accepted.
The first printing of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" came out in 1997 and amounted to only a thousand copies, of which half went to children's libraries. The book did not make a big impression, but it was still noticed by critics. The Scottish Art Council has given Rowling a grant to help her start the second volume of Potter.
In the same year, at a professional fair of children's literature publishers in Bologna, Barry Cunningham managed to sell the rights to the American edition of Harry Potter to Scholastiс, which offered the writer an unusually large advance for a debutante - 105 thousand dollars. The writer had, however, to change the title of the book to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" ("Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone"). Subsequently, she never adapted the titles of the novels for an American audience.
The second book about Harry Potter ("Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets") appeared in 1998. That same year, Warner Bros. bought the film rights to two of Rowling's novels. They were released in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Both were directed by Chris Columbus. Rowling herself wanted to see British director Terry Gilliam as director, but the choice was up to the studio.
The third and fourth novels ("Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" respectively "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire") were published in 1999 and 2000 years.
Immediately after Christmas 2001 (December 26), JK Rowling remarried. This time her chosen one was the Edinburgh anesthesiologist Neil Scott Murray. The birth of two children (in March 2003, the couple had a son, David Gordon Rowling Murray, and in January 2005, a daughter, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray) slowed down work on new continuations of the Potter series. The fifth book ("Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix", "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix") was published in 2003, and the sixth ("Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince") - in 2005
The seventh and final novel in the series - "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" - went on sale in the UK and the US, as well as in several other countries at midnight July 21, 2007 local time. The premiere of Rowling's book was preceded by a series of leaks: several hackers and pirates posted a synopsis, and then digital photos of the American edition of the book on the Internet. An investigation by publisher Scholastic identified the sources of the leaked photos: Levy Home Entertainment (LHE) and DeepDiscount.com, which delivered approximately 1,200 copies of the novel to American readers despite the embargo. One of the buyers posted the re-shot pages of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" to file-sharing networks. In addition, two days before the novel's release, The New York Times published a review of the novel written by its lead critic, Michiko Kakutani. The author admitted that she bought the book from a New York store that also violated the embargo. Rowling and Bloomsbury and Scholastic have asked those who already have copies of the novel "not to spoil the fun for other readers."
Film adaptations of Rowling's third, fourth, and fifth novels appeared in 2004, 2006, and 2007, respectively. The sixth film ("Half-Blood Prince") was released in 2009, the seventh ("Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows") is expected to be released in two parts. The first part of "The Deathly Hallows" was released in 2010, and the second - in 2011.
Rowling repeatedly assured that the seventh novel would be the last in the series, but on the eve of its release, she did not rule out that she would write a continuation of the adventures of her heroes in the future. Her agent also announced that the writer plans to publish an encyclopedia of characters and realities from her novels.
The total world circulation of the first six Harry Potter novels amounted to 325 million copies. In March 2007, the fortune of 41-year-old Rowling was estimated by Forbes magazine at one billion dollars.
The Harry Potter novels brought the writer many awards, including the Nestle Smarties Gold Award (three times), British Book Awards, Children's Book Award (twice), The Booksellers Association / The Bookseller Author of the Year Award (twice), Scottish Arts Council Children's Book Award (twice), the Spanish Prince of Asturias Award. Rowling was made an MBE in 2000.
Rowling does a lot of charity work. In particular, she supports the Single Parents Foundation and the Multiple Sclerosis Research Foundation, the disease from which her mother died.
Rowling is named among the close friends of Sarah Brown, the wife of the current British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
October 20, 2010 Lenta.ru JK Rowling is the first recipient of the Andersen Prize
The first winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Literary Prize was the British writer JK Rowling, reports CBC News. This newly established award is given to children's writers for their closeness to Andersen's ideas.
The award ceremony took place on October 19 in Andersen's homeland, in the Danish city of Odense. The prize money for the laureate is 500,000 crowns (about $100,000).
Date of Birth: 31.07.1965
Born July 31, 1965 in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England (near Bristol) to Anne and Pete Rowling. Her father worked as an engineer at the Rolls-Royce factory.
When Joan was four years old, her family moved to Winterbourne, also near Bristol. Joan grew up as a dreamy child and often came up with incredible fantasy stories. She loved to read and wrote her first fairy tale when she was 6 years old - a fairy tale about a rabbit named Rabbit who had measles and friends came to visit him with a giant bee named Miss Bee.
When she was nine, she and her family settled in Tatsheel, a small village near Chipstow in Wales. At that time, she was a quiet girl whose favorite subject was English. She loved to tell stories to her friends where they were heroes and performed daring feats that they would not have dared to do in real life.
When Joan was 15, her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In her senior year, Joan decided to go to Oxford. But, despite the fact that she successfully passed the entrance exams, she never became a student at a prestigious university. In the same 1983, Joanna entered the University of Exeter (Exeter) in Devon at the French department at the insistence of her parents.
After graduating from the university, having received a Bachelor of Arts degree, Rowling moved to London, where she changed several jobs.
On December 30, 1990, at the age of 45, her mother died, after which Joan decided to leave for Portugal to teach English. There she began writing her Harry Potter novel. Before that, Joan worked on her first two novels, which she later considered a failure and never published. In Portugal, in August 1992, Joan married journalist Jorge Arantes. In 1993, their daughter Jessica was born, and in the same year Joan divorced her husband and moved with her daughter to Edinburgh, Scotland.
At this time, Rowling works as a French teacher and continues to write a book about a wizard boy. The book failed to sell, and Rowling received many rejections until Bloomsbury bought Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for only US$4,000. The Scottish Arts Council soon awarded Rowling a grant to complete the book. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released in June 1997 and was voted the best children's book of the year in the UK. By the summer of 2000, the first three books had sold over 35 million copies and were translated into 35 languages.
In 1998, Warner Bros. bought the film rights to Rowling's first two Harry Potter novels. The Harry Potter series has been translated into more than 60 languages, including Russian. More than 250 million books have been sold worldwide.
The success of the series with readers, as well as movies based on the novels, brought Rowling worldwide fame and fortune. Since 2004, JK Rowling has been the richest woman in the UK. Forbes magazine in 2008 estimated her fortune at $1 billion.
In 2001, Joan Rowling married her friend, physician Neil Murray. In March 2003, the couple had a son, David Gordon Rowling Murray, and in January 2005, a daughter, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray.
Character information:
The real name of the writer is Joanna Murray Rowling, not Joan Kathleen Rowling. Before its first publication, the publisher feared that boys would be reluctant to buy a book written by a woman. Therefore, Rowling was asked to use her initials instead of her full name. At the same time, the publisher wanted the initials to consist of two letters. Rowling chose her grandmother's name, Kathleen, for her middle initial.
In Winterbourne, she and her sister were friends with children named Potter. She says that she has always liked this last name and preferred it to her own because the children always teased her for her last name, saying that she looked like a pin (rowling-rolling pins).
Rowling is actively involved in charity work. In particular, she supports the Single Parents Foundation and the Multiple Sclerosis Research Foundation, the disease from which her mother died.
The first Harry Potter book was written on an old typewriter.
Asteroid No. 43844, at the suggestion of Chicago astronomer Mark Hammergren, who discovered it, will be named Rowling in honor of the famous writer.
Writer's Awards
Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, 1997/1998/1999 - gold medal in the category for children aged 9-11.
- Children's Book Award, 1998/1999/2000/2001
- The Bookseller Author of the Year Award, 1998/1999
- Order of the British Empire, 2001
- Prize of the Prince of Asturias, 2003 (Spain) (the official website of the Rowling Prize is not listed among the winners)
- British Book awards Book of the Year, 2003/2006
- Edinburgh Prize, 2008 (for contribution to the life of the city and special achievements in the field of art)
- Literary award British Book awards (Nibbie), 2008 - for outstanding achievements (London).
- Order of the Legion of Honor, 2009 - the highest award of France, which was personally presented to her by French President Nicolas Sarkozy
-, (2010) - Danish literary prize named after G. H. Andersen
Bibliography
Harry Potter book series :
- (1997)
- (1998)
- (1999)
In 1990, a new image arose in the mind of Joan (the author of Harry Potter): a wizard boy who later became famous throughout the world. This character after a while made her rich and famous. And it all started with a crowded train...
History of creation
During the trip, the invented image became more and more distinct. The girl could not write down her thoughts. Upon returning home, work began on the first book about the young wizard.
This year, JK Rowling's mother dies, who never found out about her daughter's intention. After that, a scene was invented where Harry Potter sees his father and mother in the magic mirror of Erinage. Joan's marriage ended in divorce, but she left behind a young daughter.
Having moved to Edinburgh, the writer continues to work on the book. In the evenings, she visited a small cafe and wrote new chapters over a cup of tea. If there were not enough sheets, she used paper napkins. Today, the establishment has a commemorative plaque, and the owner wants to create a museum for the young wizard. After all, it was here that the main characters of Harry Potter were born.
The first book was published only in 1996, although it was completed a year earlier. The delay was caused by the fact that the publisher did not accept it for publication. But now JK Rowling is the richest writer. She has a large family with three children. Despite the fact that the epic is completed, the author hopes to return to Harry Potter in the future.
Main characters
- Harry Potter - a surviving boy whose parents died, is smart and quick-witted. Won the battle with Voldemort. He has a scar on his forehead and is able to communicate with snakes. Member of the Quidditch team.
- Hermione Greiger is the best friend of the protagonist. The girl's father and mother did not have magical abilities. She has extensive knowledge in various fields of magical sciences, which repeatedly rescued her friends in difficult times. She is very beautiful.
- Ronald Weasley is a freckled, red-haired guy who is incredibly kind and funny. Subsequently, Hermione fell in love with him. He is easily frightened, especially by spiders. His family has many children, but little money. Talented chess player and goalkeeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
Children and adults loved Harry Potter. Summary of the big story: “A young wizard lives in a foster family and is very happy that he will study in a strange place. There the guy finds friends, and gets acquainted with the inhabitants of the Forbidden Forest and Hogwarts Castle. In each part, the boy fights the evil sorcerer and his minions. The last battle will be difficult, losses and disappointments are not ruled out. But Harry will prove to the world that he is a special wizard."
Other characters in the story
- Draco Malfoy is a purebred wizard, blond with cold gray eyes. Constantly harms the main characters, being their enemy. One of the Death Eaters. The author of "Harry Potter" tried to clearly describe the characters.
- Ginevra Weasley is a pretty red-haired girl. Ron's only sister, later beloved of Harry Potter. Successful Quidditch player. A girl with talent, but rather naive. The boys are looking at her.
fairy tale teachers
- Severus Snape - Dean of the Slytherin faculty, first teaches potions, then - methods of protection from dark forces. The gloomy appearance is complemented by long black hair. All his life he loved Lily (the mother of the protagonist), but she married James, so he developed a peculiar attitude towards Harry Potter. However, despite all this, he secretly assists him.
- Albus Dumbledore is the headmaster of Hogwarts and one of the most powerful wizards. As conceived by the writer, he combines all the best qualities: he does not argue with students and gives them the opportunity to make mistakes and draw conclusions. In communication, he is straightforward and does not separate students on the basis of blood purity. The author of "Harry Potter" made him mysterious and enigmatic.
- Minerva McGonagall - Deputy Headmaster of Hogwarts, Dean of Gryffindor. She is very serious and does not understand the jokes of the students. She devoted herself entirely to teaching the wards of transfiguration.
JK Rowling has managed to create the perfect fairy tale with a thoughtful plot and interesting characters.
Dark side
- Lord Voldemort is the strongest magician and the most evil character. He almost managed to achieve immortality. He hated half-breeds, but he was one himself. He graduated from Hogwarts with honors, hates the whole world and loves power. Has a talent for dark spells.
- Bellatrix Lestrange is a death eater. The gloomy appearance is terrifying. At one time, she killed the godfather of the protagonist. Bellatrix was a prisoner of Azkaban, but escaped from there.
- Peter Pettigrew was on friendly terms with Harry Potter's father. A very weak personality, which was the reason for betrayal and going over to the side of evil. Involved in the death of the father and mother of the protagonist.
The tale of the good wizard will tell you about good deeds. These names will be remembered by more than one generation of teenagers. The author of "Harry Potter" has created a bestseller that has already become a classic of the fantasy genre, gaining millions of fans around the world, including in Russia.
After leaving school, Rowling tried to enter Oxford, but eventually became a student of the Faculty of Philology at the University of Exeter. In addition to French, Rowling studied ancient Greek and Roman literature at the university.
After graduating from university, Rowling moved to London, where she changed several jobs, among which was a position in Amnesty International, a human rights organization.
While traveling from Manchester to London on a crowded train, Rowling had the idea for a novel about a black-haired, bespectacled boy who was unaware of his magical powers. She started work that evening when she got home. After the death of her mother in December 1990, the main character of her future novel was an orphan boy, yearning for his dead parents.
In the early 1990s, Rowling lived in Portugal where she taught English as a foreign language. In 1993 she moved to Edinburgh.
In 1995, the writer sent the first chapters of the book to several literary agents. In 1997, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was first published by Bloomsbury. The publisher suggested that the writer print her initials instead of her full name on the cover, citing the fact that boys would not want to buy a book written by a woman. Since Rowling did not have a middle name, she chose the letter "K" as her initial, in honor of her grandmother Kathleen - "J.K. Rowling". The book has gained popularity with the public.
In 1999, the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, was published.
The fourth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was published on 8 July 2000 with a UK record circulation of one million copies.
The next Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was published in 2003, followed by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in 2005.
The last book in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows series was published in 2007.
Interest in Harry Potter and income from book sales increased with each new novel. Rowling's works have been translated into 67 languages.
In December 2007, the collection "Tales of Beedle the Bard" was published, which was also mentioned in the last book about Harry Potter, and the text of one of the tales is given in full in the novel.
In September 2012, Rowling's first adult novel, Random Vacancy, was released in the UK.
Under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, the writer published two detective novels, The Call of the Cuckoo (2013) and The Silkworm (2014).
The writer also announced that she had already written half of her third crime novel and had begun work on the plot of the fourth. It is planned that there will be more than seven books connected by a common hero - detective Cormoran Strike.
Rowling is the screenwriter of a number of Harry Potter films - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ( 2005), "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (2007), "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (2009).
In two parts of the picture "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", released in 2010 and 2011, she is also a producer.
JK Rowling various charitable organizations: the Single Parent Foundation, the Multiple Sclerosis Research Foundation, and others. She is the founder of the charitable organization "Lumos", which protects the rights of mentally retarded children in poor European countries.
In 2012, she gave a short speech at the opening ceremony of the XXX Summer Olympic Games in London.
Rowling is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In 2001, she was awarded the Order of the British Empire, in 2009 - the Order of the Legion of Honor (France). Her awards include the Hugo Prize (2001), the Prince of Asturias Prize (Spain, 2003), the W.G. Smith (2004), Edinburgh Prize (2008), Hans Christian Andersen Prize (Denmark, 2010) and others. Rowling has been awarded the British Book Prize several times (1998, 1999, 2000, 2006, 2008).
In 2001, JK Rowling married Neil Murray, an anesthesiologist. In 2003, the couple had a son, David, in 2005, a daughter, Mackenzie. She also has a daughter from her first marriage, Jessica (born in 1993). The writer took her husband's surname, but publishes books under the same name, more familiar to readers.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
After graduating from the University of Exeter, the modest and inconspicuous girl J. K. Rowling got a job as a secretary in the charitable organization Amnesty International. Perhaps the only thing she liked about this job was the ability to secretly type invented stories on the office computer.
Harry Potter: the birth of a character
One day, at the end of the weekend, she was returning to London from Manchester, where she settled with her then boyfriend. Suddenly, a new character appeared in her imagination - a thin boy with glasses and a scar on his forehead. At the same time, he had no idea what strong magical abilities he possessed ...However, Joan did not even have a pen with her, and for four hours she simply came up with new details for such a suddenly appeared image. That same evening, the future famous writer began work on the first Harry Potter book. Gradually, Harry had his own world, full of friends and enemies. The prototypes of fairy-tale characters were acquaintances of J.K. Rowling, and sometimes she herself.
For example, the diligent and omniscient Hermione reminds herself in childhood, Severus Snape - one of her school teachers, and Zlatopust Lokons - not the most pleasant of Joan's acquaintances.
Joan Rowling found unusual names for her characters among the scientific names of plants, heroes of medieval legends, on maps, in dictionaries, even on monuments to war victims. The surname Potter Harry received in honor of a childhood friend of the writer, and Severus Snape is the name of one of the English villages.
Sorrows and Triumph JK Rowling
The days when the young wizard was born into the world were by no means the happiest for the writer. On December 30, 1990, JK Rowling's mother died, whom she never had time to tell about her new plan. Impressed by the tragedy that happened in her life, Joan wrote a scene in which Harry sees his parents in a magic mirror. The first marriage of the writer, which ended in divorce, was also unsuccessful.Left alone with her little daughter Jessica in her arms, JK Rowling settled in Edinburgh and decided to finish the Harry Potter book. Almost every evening she went to a small cafe, where she ordered tea or water for herself and wrote page after page. When the paper ran out, Joan continued to write on napkins. Now a memorial plaque hangs in this cafe, and its owner has a Harry Potter museum in it.
The first book about the young wizard, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was completed in 1995. But only a year later, Bloomsbury accepted it for publication.
Today JK Rowling is the richest writer in the world, a happy wife and mother of three children. The epic about Harry Potter is long over, but Joan promises that someday she will return to her beloved character.