Tuesday, July 24, 2012

J. K. Rowling: The Brains Behind the Popular Series Harry Potter


J. K. Rowling is the author and creator of the popular series Harry Potter. The series has seven published books. Rowling rose to popularity when a movie series was also produced based on her novels.

Joanne K. Rowling was born in Gloucestershire, England on July 31, 1965. Rowling earned her Bachelors in French and Classic from the University of Exeter. Her first employment was with Amnesty International where she worked as a researcher and bilingual secretary.

In 1990, the idea of creating Harry Potter came to her while she was in Manchester waiting for a train to London. When she reached London, she started writing. She moved to Edinburgh, Scotland after she and her husband for one and a half years divorced. She was unemployed and relied heavily on state support for her living. During this time, she did most of Harry Potter series.

The first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was finished in 1995. Bryony Evans of the Christopher Little Literary Agents became her agent for the book. The book was submitted to twelve publishers, and all twelve rejected to publish the book. A small publisher named Bloomsbury accepted to publish the book one year after the first attempt.

The book was first sold in the US in 1998 with the title “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”. The US version was published through Scholastic because Bloomsbury did not have an office in the US.

The rights for the filming of the book were acquired in 1998. The first movie in the series was released in 2001. All the seven books in the Harry Potter series were eventually filmed.

The books gave Rowling her fortunes to become one of the richest writers in the world. Rowling has been active in many charitable events. Her most favorite philanthropic activities included those that focus on single-parent families, children and researches on multiple sclerosis.

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