Rowling didn't write Harry Potter. Harry Potter and the phenomenon of popular culture
JK Rowling is one of the most famous writers of our time. Having given the world a series of books about Harry Potter, she instantly became popular and loved in all corners of the earth. The imagination and talent of the famous British writer created a whole world that immediately became home to millions of readers.
However, what do we know about her - about the woman who built this magical world of magic and wizardry revolving around Hogwarts school? Almost nothing. She appeared as if out of nowhere and after several years of popularity, it seems she never really got used to it. She rarely appears in public, rarely gives large interviews. But this only makes Joan’s personality even more attractive and interesting.
JK Rowling's childhood
The future legendary writer was born in a town called Chipping Sothebury, located in Gloucestershire (England). Her father, Peter James, was an engineer at the Rolls-Royce plant, and her mother, Anne Wolan, was a simple housewife. On her mother's side, the writer has French and Scottish roots.In addition to her parents, Joan’s closest and dearest person was always her younger sister Di (Diana). It is believed that it was for her that the six-year-old writer wrote her first book - a children's fairy tale about the adventures of a rabbit named Rabbit and Miss Bee.
Joan had the opportunity to become even closer friends with her younger sister due to the frequent moves of their family. It was almost impossible to make permanent friends, and therefore the girls spent all their free time together. The Rowling sisters made friends only after moving to the town of Winterbourne. By a happy coincidence, the last name of one of them was Potter. As the writer herself admits, she always liked this surname much more than her own. Because of Rowling's last name (sounds like rolling pins), she was often teased as a "rolling pin."
The situation changed somewhat as Joan began to grow up. University friends and teachers, recalling Rowling, say that she was always an introverted and strange girl who always wore heavy eye makeup and carried books by Tolkien and Dickens with her. This is how she was when she studied at the University of Exeter, where she studied French and classical philology.
After graduating from this institution, the future writer briefly went to Paris, where she continued to improve her French. And then, returning to London, she began working as a secretary in one of the departments of Amnesty International.
Harry Potter's Mom JK Rowling
Books by JK Rowling about Harry Potter and twists and turns of fate
In 1990, JK Rowling left the organization she had previously worked for, along with her boyfriend, and decided to move to Manchester. Due to some problems, the train the girl was traveling on was delayed for four hours. At that moment, sitting on the frozen train, Joan finally clearly understood the concept of the novel, the idea of which had been floating in her head for several months. As the woman recalled, it all started with the image of Harry Potter himself, which was later joined by other characters. Arriving home, she immediately began writing. Thus the first chapters were created.Subsequent parts of the book were written in Portugal, where Joan went to teach English. Here the writer met her future husband, Jorge Arantes. The couple began dating, and soon officially legalized their relationship. In July 1993, the couple had a daughter, Jessica Isabelle. However, quiet family happiness did not work out for the Anglo-Portuguese couple. According to some biographers, Jorge often lost his temper and even beat JK Rowling. Therefore, thirteen months after the marriage was registered, the couple broke up.
The truth about JK Rowling's violent past and the source of Harry Potter's creepy episodes
In December 1993, Joan moved to Edinburgh, where her younger sister lived. At this point in her life, a protracted depression began in her life, associated with divorce, psychological trauma and lack of work. She lived on one benefit and was hiding from her ex-husband, who came to Scotland to take her daughter away from her. Ultimately, the situation was resolved only through the courts. And from that moment on, the life of the aspiring writer began to slowly improve.
In 1995, she completed her first manuscript, which was soon sent to all more or less large agencies in England. She was rejected 12 times, but eventually one of the agencies decided to publish the book. The novel was released in a limited edition, but soon began to collect a variety of awards. “Nestlé Smarties Book Prize”, “British Book Award”, “Children’s Book Award” - each of these awards strengthened Joan’s position and brought her books first popularity. Very soon, success overwhelmed her. The first book was followed by new novels. The young writer’s books sold out in millions of copies, and Joan’s royalties added several zeros in just a few years. In Great Britain, and then throughout the world, real hysteria began associated with the name Harry Potter, which only became stronger after the release of the film of the same name. IN
In 2004, JK Rowling became the first dollar billionaire to achieve such success with the help of books. For her contribution to the development of British literature, Rowling was awarded the Hugo Award, the Order of the British Empire, and also became a Knight Commander of the Legion of Honor and the owner of a huge number of other awards.
It is very noteworthy that during this period “global warming” also occurred in the writer’s personal life. In 2001, she married English anesthesiologist Neil Michael Murray. In 2003, the couple had a son, David Gordon, and in 2005, a daughter, Mackenzie Jean, to whom the book “The Half-Blood Prince” was dedicated.
JK Rowling now
In addition to the seven books that directly formed the story of Harry Potter and his friends, JK Rowling wrote and published several more novels in one way or another related to the magical world of Hogwarts. Thus, in 2001 and 2008, the books “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”, “Quidditch from Antiquity to the Present”, “The Tales of Beedle the Bard”, “Harry Potter: Prehistory” were published, which became similar applications to novels about a young wizard. Thus, readers should have better understood the world in which this character exists.In addition, in 2012 and 2013, two more books by the writer were published - “Casual Vacancy” and “The Cuckoo’s Calling” (not published in Russian). These novels are intended for an adult audience.
Currently, in addition to her writing, JK Rowling is actively involved in charity work.
The name of the cult British writer JK Rowling is known all over the world. It was she who gave fantasy fans a story about a boy who lived. Joan's life, her youth and mature years were full of tragic events; such life experiences pushed Rowling to write novels that remain bestsellers even today.
Childhood of a future celebrity
Rowling was born on July 31st, 1965. Her family was not very wealthy; her parents lived in the city of Waite, which is located in the UK.
Initially, Joan did not have a middle name; a little later, when she needed a pseudonym, she took the name of her own grandmother - Catherine.
Joan's father worked for a long time in a car sales company, and her mother simply took care of the house and raised Joan, as well as her younger sister Dianna.
4 years after Joan was born, the girl’s family moved to Winterbourne.
Rowling herself characterizes her childhood as the best time of her life. Her parents loved her and her sister very much. They instilled in Joan a love of literature and played a lot with her and Dianna.
Since the Rowling family was often on the move, little Joan had few friends. Perhaps this brought her and her sister even closer.
After moving to Wells, a terrible event occurred in the Rowling family. Joan's mother fell ill with multiple sclerosis. The disease developed too quickly, doctors could not help, and the woman died in 1990 as quickly as she fell ill.
The future creator of the Harry Potter novels began writing at the age of six. Then Joan's first stories saw the light of day. When her mother died, the girl often played with neighboring children named Potter. As an adult, Joan decided to give the main character of Potter this very last name.
First job and the way up
Rowling graduated from university and majored in French linguistics. Joan's first job was Amnesty International. There she held the position of secretary.
After working as a secretary for a year, Rowling meets a young man and moves with him to Manchester.
On the train between London and Manchester, Joan was born with the image of a boy with glasses about whom she wanted to write a novel..
Her relationship with the young man with whom Rowling went to Manchester did not work out. She found a job in Portugal and moved to the city of Porto.
"Potteriana" and work on novels
Fans of Harry Potter call all books about this boy wizard “Potteriana.” The first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was released to the public in 1997. Before the work was released in a circulation of 1,000 units, Rowling was rejected by 12 publishers. Only the latter agreed to print a small sample run.
A couple of months later, JK Rowling woke up famous, and in November she was awarded the prestigious Nesyle Smarties Book Prize.
Rowling then worked on the remaining parts of the Potter series as part of the contract. So that young boys would not be embarrassed to read her novels about the adventures of the wizard and his friends, Joan took the pseudonym “J. K. Rowling." Adults also appreciated the first novel; for their convenience, another super-cover was released, which hid the true title of the book, so that on the way to work on the subway, respectable employees would not be embarrassed to immerse themselves in the world of Hogwarts and magical London.
The second and third Harry Potter books were published within two years of each other. Rowling called them “Chamber of Secrets” and “Prisoner of Azkaban.” Then the fourth book, “The Goblet of Fire,” appeared. It was this novel that broke all popularity records and was sold in 24 hours in the amount of 372 thousand books.
Two years later, Rowling published Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. A little later, the next novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, comes out. This bestseller broke the previous record of "Prisoner of Azkaban". It sold out 9 million books in 24 hours.
The last book on the list and the seventh book, “The Deathly Hallows,” was published at the end of 2007.
All Potter books have been translated into 70 languages and dialects around the world.
All parts of the literary hits about Harry Potter have been made into films directed by such famous personalities as Columbus, Cuaron and Yates.
JK Rowling was part of the writing team for each of the films, she approved all the scripts, and took an active part in the selection of actors, as well as in the filming process itself.
There is a story that Rowling set a requirement for the directors to have most of the actors in the Harry Potter films be of British descent.
Rowling's further work
After the success of the first seven books, Joan wrote two works for adult audiences. Her “Casual Vacancy” received popularity and recognition.
J. K. Rowling published her book “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” under the pseudonym Newt Scamander. Joan received the Order of the British Empire for her tales "The Jester Hare".
Joan donated part of her huge fortune of £13 million to charity.
Rowling: life on the personal front
While working in Portugal, Joan met her future husband, Jorge Arantes. At the beginning of the relationship, everything went well for the young people, but after marriage and the birth of their daughter, their mutual understanding dried up. There are rumors that Jorge was very jealous of Joan, and also repeatedly raised his hand to her.
Rowling decided to end the relationship and divorced Arantes. She later moved to the UK, taking her daughter with her. She had to hide from her violent husband and live on benefits.
Being in distress, the writer did not give up. She took care of her daughter and worked hard on the first Potter book. Early negative experiences in marriage had a profound effect on her. Therefore, Rowling remarried only eight years later. Her lover was the doctor Neil Murray. Rowling had two more sons from this marriage.
It looks like JK Rowling is very happy today. She continues to do charity work, writes new works and pays a lot of attention to her family. The Harry Potter brand has been widely developed, and JK Rowling is today one of the highest paid writers in the world.
(Roling, English: Joanne Rowling; July 31, 1965) - English writer, writing under the pseudonym Joanne Katheline Rowling, author of a series (1997-2007), translated into more than 60 languages, including Russian. In 2001, JK Rowling received the Hugo Award.
Name
The writer's real name is Joanna Murray Rowling, and not Joanna Kathleen Rowling, as many people think. 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 initials instead of her full name. At the same time, the publishing house wanted the initials to consist of two letters. Rowling chose her grandmother's name, Kathleen, for her middle initial.
Works from the series about GP
Commercial success
Autograph Books have been translated into more than 60 languages.
More than 250 million copies sold.
USA: 80 million
Germany: 15.5 million
Russia: 13.5 million
UK: 8 million
Canada: 6 million
Australia and New Zealand: 5.3 million
Italy: 3.7 million
Poland: 2.2 million
Lithuania: 2.1 million
According to the British newspaper Sunday Times, the writer's fortune is estimated at 545 million pounds sterling. Since 2004, she has been the richest woman in the UK.
J. Rowling worked as a secretary for the charity Amnesty International.
The first book about 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.
In June 2006, the British public named JK Rowling "the greatest living British author". JK Rowling took first place in the poll, collecting almost three times more votes than fantasy author Terry Pratchett
— 53 years old.
We have collected 7 facts from the writer’s life that influenced the plot and images of the novels and made “Potter” as we know it.
LoserJoan disobeyed her parents, who wanted her to study something useful at university, and took up classical literature. It was impossible to imagine a more impractical choice. Seven years after graduating from university, by the time she sat down to write the book, twenty-seven-year-old Rowling was a complete failure - she had no job, she was separated from her husband and remained a single mother. There was barely enough money just to pay the rent.
Nevertheless, as she believes, it was precisely the hopeless situation that pushed her to take up the matter that she really had her heart in - writing. “If I had been successful in something else, I might never have had the courage to pursue a goal in what I truly love.” Well, knowledge of classical philology helped to come up with many new words for the fantasy world.
DepressionWarner Bros.
The first novel took five years to write, and another two years passed before the work was published. So the sad financial situation of the author lasted for a very long time. It is not surprising that Rowling eventually ended up in a specialized hospital with a diagnosis of clinical depression. Subsequently, she admitted to journalists that she was inspired to create the image of dementors precisely by this state of melancholy and the feeling of absolute hopelessness that she experienced during her illness.
Hermione RowlingWarner Bros.
Rowling wrote Hermione Granger from herself. She considers this character a caricature of her eleven-year-old self: she studied just as greedily, wanted to be on time everywhere, and readily demonstrated her knowledge to everyone. Well, we think that if this was satire, it was quite delicate towards itself.
By the way, Hermione's patronus is an otter because it's Rowling's favorite animal.
InspirationThe idea for the Harry Potter novels came to Joan while she was traveling on a train from Manchester to London: “I was returning to London alone on a crowded train and the idea of Harry Potter just popped into my head. I've been writing almost continuously since I was six years old, but I've never been so excited about an idea before. Much to my disappointment, I didn't have a pen and was too shy to ask anyone. And I think that was probably a good thing. I just sat and thought while all the details bubbled up in my brain and this skinny black-haired boy with glasses who didn't know he was a wizard became more and more real to me. Maybe if I had slowed down to get them down on paper, I would have suppressed some of them (though sometimes I wonder how much of what I imagined then I had forgotten by the time I found myself with a pen). I started writing The Philosopher's Stone that evening, although those first few pages have nothing in common with the finished book."
Mother's deathWarner Bros.
Rowling had just begun writing the novel when her mother died of multiple sclerosis in December 1990. Joan never told her about the boy wizard. “The books are what they are because she died. Because I loved her and she died." This is why the theme of death, especially the death of parents, is so important in novels.
Biker HagridWarner Bros.
Rowling told actor Robbie Coltrane, who played Hagrid in the films, that the character was inspired by a biker she met in a bar. “When he walked in, people ran away from him like ants. He took a mug of beer, sat down and said: “The petunias didn’t grow this year.” He was a gardener, but his fists were like two hammers. And he had a soft heart."
Death of RonWarner Bros.
While working on one of the novels, Joan almost killed Ron Weasley. At that moment it was not the best period in my life, and the mood was most suitable for “killing” someone. Now the writer says that if she had given in to an impulse, she would never have forgiven herself for it.
Tatyana Stolyar explains why the new book about Harry Potter is a mockery of fans. Attention, the text contains spoilers and information that may upset Potter fans.
On July 30, the premiere of the production “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” took place on the stage of London’s Palace Theatre, a continuation of the story about the most famous wizard. The next day, in the UK and around the world (except for Russia - domestic Potter lovers have traditionally been deprived) sales of the script book of the same name began, on which the play was staged.
As a true Potter fanatic, I immediately read the new story and bitterly state: it would be better for JK Rowling to leave Harry Potter alone and never write this play. Contradictions with previous books, logical errors, violation of the canons of the magical world - and this is only part of the horror that you encounter while reading.
I won't leave him because he's good
Almost ten years ago, in January 2007, sitting in the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, Rowling wrote: “The scar did not bother Harry for 19 years. Everything was fine” and put an end to it. Not only in the novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but in the story of Harry Potter in general. Then there were targeted entries into the world of adult literature: the novel “The Casual Vacancy” and an attempt to revive the detective genre with a series about the adventures of a gloomy detective and his beautiful secretary (three books have already been published), which Rowling is releasing under the guise of former military police detective Robert Galbraith .
The public and critics greeted the adult novels of the richest writer in the world without ecstasy - yes, good, but nothing more. Therefore, at the same time, the Englishwoman slowly tore off the “taboo” label from the work of her entire life. First she released “appendices” - books about the structure of the magical world. Based on one of these works - "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" - Warner Bros. Already this fall, he is releasing a film, the script for which was adapted by Rowling herself, starring Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne. On the official website of the Potter series, Pottermore, articles from Rowling increasingly appeared, where she talked about the further fate of this or that character. On Twitter, “Potter's mom” happily discussed the topic of the wizarding world with fans almost every day. The fans, of course, welcomed all this activity with a bang and begged us to write a sequel.
Three years ago, Rowling relented and announced that there would be a new story about Potter. True, she then conceived not a full-fledged novel, but a play, and in co-authorship with screenwriter Jack Thornton (a professional in teenagers - the author of the series "Skins" and "Misfits") and prominent theater director John Tiffany (winner of a theatrical Oscar - "Tony "and a favorite of the London public). But this is all, you see, nuances, so no matter how hard Rowling tried to feign calm (#This is_not_a_novel #This_is_not_a_prequel, she gushed on Twitter), everyone took the news unambiguously: a continuation of Harry Potter! Eee!
From boy hero to man loser
In a new story, familiar characters from childhood suddenly become distant and incomprehensible. Yes, Harry and company are now approaching 40, but such radical changes cannot be attributed to age alone. The Boy Who Lived appears in the eighth book as an extremely insecure man. He heads the Auror department - but he feels like an ordinary office clerk.
Harry constantly reflects on the topic of his past: Potter is especially worried that his path to victory over evil is paved with the corpses of familiar and unfamiliar people. Let us note that quite a lot of time has passed since the reign of the dark forces, and all this time he did not particularly remember the tragic events, and then suddenly at one fine moment he thought that because of him a lot of people died - it is incomprehensible. And everyone died not for the sake of Harry Potter, but in the name of victory over Voldemort and his followers.
But this is not so bad, the main reason for the headache (and I’m not talking about the scar) of an adult wizard is a bad relationship with his youngest son Albus Severus. If for the whole world Harry Potter is an idol, then for his own offspring he is an incomprehensible and unpleasant person. Well, how can you like an elder who says the hackneyed “I won’t explain anything, I know better what you need, I’m your father.”
One day, during another painful dialogue, parent and son throw destructive words at each other:
There is sex in the magical world
“Fairy tales don’t need sex. No one fucks in front of unicorns” - this famous statement by JK Rowling did not need explanation before “The Cursed Child”. There really wasn't any sex in the previous books. Of course, it is clear that wizards are not dragons, but there was somehow no need to think about the intimate lives of the characters. But in the new book, the reader is forced to think about reproductive processes in the magical world.
At the very beginning and throughout the play, there is a rumor that the father of Scorpius Malfoy - a pale, thin boy with platinum hair - is not Draco at all, but Voldemort. Rowling has always been extremely pedantic about maintaining chronology in her books, so you can easily calculate Scorpius’s date of birth - approximately 2005-2006, and the Dark Lord, as we know, was killed in May 1998. So how could Voldemort be the boy's father? I froze the sperm, no less.
The fact that he has a daughter, Delphi, also forces us to think about the personal life of the most famous evil wizard in history. The reader learns that the “cursed child” was the result of Voldemort’s relationship with... Bellatrix Lestrange. Let's say the Death Eater was so devoted to the ruler that she even cheated on her lawful spouse, but the question arises: when did they have time? Apparently, Delphi was born on the eve of the Battle of Hogwarts; accordingly, the happy mother had just given birth - and immediately went to meet her death.
Let’s add toilet humor to this when Albus, using a polyjuice potion, transforms into Ron Weasley and turns to Hermione with the proposal “let’s have another child.”
Where is the logic
The aforementioned Scorpius/Dark Lord rumor is an important part of the new story. From this rumor, storylines grow and it also explains the character traits of Scorpius. But in fact, this gossip is not supported by anything, and its origin is explained in an extremely strange way: supposedly, when Draco’s wife fell ill after a difficult birth and the family moved away from human eyes, many decided that the Malfoy family was hiding because they were involved in the case Dark Lord. Yes, yes, just like that, casually, for show, Rowling explains one of the important components of the new story.
In general, “The Cursed Child” contains a lot of formality and negligence. Some will say that this is not a full-fledged novel, but a play, but we remember that no matter how Rowling positions the book, it is still a continuation of the story, which means that all established rules must be observed. Potter fans are accustomed to having a character's actions and events explained - albeit not immediately (as in the case of Snape), but explained.