J. K. Rowling
Biography
Joanne Kathleen Rowling, otherwise known as
“J.K.” Rowling, was born on July 31, 1965, in
Bristol, England. Joanne’s parents, Peter and
Ann, gave birth to another daughter, Diana, a couple of
years later. The family spent its first few years
in the town of Yate, where Rowling wrote her first story
about a rabbit who contracted the measles at the age of
six. When Rowling was about 9, they moved to
Winterbourne where the two sisters made playmates with
many of the neighborhood children, two of whom had the
last name of Potter, which would become rather
significant later. A few years later, the family
moved to the town of Tutshill. Rowling had to take
classes in a school that she did not like. It is at
this stage of her life that she began using the world of
books as an escape to slip into the dream world of C.S.
Lewis and E. Nesbit, just to name a few (J.K. Rowling).
Joanne and her family continued to live in the town of
Tutshill. During her high school years, English
would develop as Joanne’s favorite subject. Since
she was not athletic, J.K. would amuse herself and others
by telling fun and fanciful stories to her friends and
anyone who would listen (Rowling, J.K. Current 483).
From high school, Rowling went on to Exeter University
and to pursue a degree in French (Paperwise). She
then took her degree and used it while she worked as a
secretary and researcher for Amnesty International; she
spent most of her time trying to type stories on her
computer while no one was watching. It was also at
this time, during a particularly long train trip to
London, that Rowling dreamed up the idea of a story about
a boy-wizard. By the time the train pulled into
King’s Cross station (also to become significant
later), much of the story of Harry Potter was already
beginning to take shape (Rowling, J.K.).
In 1992, Joanne Moved to Portugal to become a teacher of
English as a Second Language. For her, teaching
gave her more free time in which she could work on the
story of Harry. About a year later she married a
journalist, but shortly after the birth of her daughter,
they divorced. It was at this time that J.K., and
her daughter Jessica, moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, to be
closer to her family. She did this to have a
support network to assist her while she was putting the
finishing touches on the first novel about Harry Potter.
Her manuscript was rejected several times upon her
completion; so, J.K. was forced to go back to work as a
French teacher in order to support herself and her
daughter (Paperwise).
Finally, a London agent named Christopher Little took a
look at the work. He sold it to Bloomsbury
Children’s Books. In 1997, while still working
as a teacher, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stone was released. It achieved, after all the
rejections, almost overnight success. The book
continued to sell. At a book fair that same year,
the editorial director of Scholastic Books, Arthur
Levine, bought the American rights to the books. Thus,
he made it possible for Joanne to quit her teaching job
to pursue her ultimate dream of writing for a living
(Rowling, J.K.).
Rowling worked so hard that each of the consecutive years
following book two and book three of the series were
released. Warner Brothers pursued Rowling for movie
rights, which she granted, as well as by Mattel, for the
merchandising rights to the boy-wizard, Harry (J.K.
Rowling). In addition to this, she has also won
many awards in the short time since she has been
published. For Harry Potter and the
Philosopher’s Stone she was awarded the British
Book Award: Children’s Book of the Year, Rowntree
Nestle Smarties Prize, Federation of Children’s Book
Groups’ Award for longer novel and overall,
Birmingham Cable Children’s Book Award, and the
Sheffield Children’s Book Award all in 1997. In
1998, she was awarded the Children’s Book of the
Year Shortlist Citation and the Rowntree Nestle Smarties
Prize for Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets, as well as the Young Telegraph Paperback of
the Year for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stone. The year 1999 brought with it the
Whitbread Prize for Children’s Book of the Year
awarded for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakaban.
She was given the WH Smith Children’s Book of the
Year Award, 2000 for Harry Potter and the Goblet of
Fire; and most recently she was awarded the Rebecca
Caudill Young Reader’s Book Award, 2001 for Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, as well as the
Hugo Award for Best Novel, World Science Fiction Society,
2001, for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Also,
in a before unheard of feat, the three books hold the top
three positions on the New York Times best-sellers list
(Rowling, J.K. Current 481). All this however, has
come at a price for J.K. Recently, she has come
under attack from some who feel that her books delve too
much into the area of wizardry and witchcraft. For
this J.K. has but one response: “The book is really
about the power of the imagination. What Harry is
learning to do is to develop his full potential. Wizardry
is just the analogy I use” (Rowling, J.K.).
Regardless of the medium, J.K. has done a wonderful
thing; she has gotten children reading again. Currently,
she is still living with her daughter Jessica close to
her sister in Scotland. She continues to work on
the seven part series of the very popular boy-wizard,
Harry Potter (Rowling, J.K.).
--Angela Dorzweiler,
Matt Heuer, Sarah Ketchum, Shannon Olivas, and Quinci
Shaver
Works Cited
“J.K. Rowling
Timeline.” Harry Potter Network and Sites.
18 September 2001
<http://www.hpnetwork.f2s.com/jkrowling/timeline.html>
Paperwise. 18
September 2001 <http://gaga.esortment.com/jkrowlingbiogr_reak.htm>
“Rowling,
J.K.” Educational Paperback Association.
17 September 2001
<http://www.edupaperback.org/authorbios/Rowling_JK.html>
“Rowling,
J.K.” Current Biography Yearbook 2000 – With
Index 1991-2000. New York: H.W.
Wilson
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