» Biography
Joanne Rowling was born on July 31st, 1965 in Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol in England. Her given name at birth was not Joanne Kathleen, but simply Joanne. The name Kathleen has never been a part of her legal name. When Bloomsbury asked her to use two initials rather than her first name (they were afraid that the target group of young boys wouldn't buy the first Harry Potter book if they saw that the author was female), she chose K from her grandmother's name. Jo has one sister, Dianne, who was born 1 year and 11 months after her.
During her childhood, Jo's family moved several times. When she was four, they moved to the town of Winterbourne, where they got to know a family with the surname Potter. None of the characters in her well-known series are based on this family, although they share their last names - a name Jo was very fond of. The Rowling family stayed in the city for nearly five years, before moving to the small village of Tutshill in Wales.
Her favourite grandmother, Kathleen, died while they were moving to Wales. This affected her feelings toward the new school, which she didn't like at all. Jo has later described herself as being shy, freckly, with no natural athletic ability but a great love of literature. Things got better when she started secondary school, Wyedean Comprehensive. Here she met Sean Harris, who owned the original turquoise Ford Anglia we meet in the Chamber of Secrets. The book was dedicated to Sean when it was published.
After graduating from Wyedean, she attended Exeter University where she studied French. She was encouraged by her parents into what they believed would be a wonderful career as a bilingual secretary. She began as a research assistant in Amnesty International, but it didn't take long before Jo realized this was not the career for her. Self-described as being "the worst secretary ever, very disorganized", she found it increasingly hard to stay focused during meetings, actually writing story ideas instead of taking notes as she had been instructed.
In 1990, when Jo was sitting on the train home from Manchester, Harry Potter decided to stroll into her head. For four hours, she simply sat and let her ideas bubble up in her brain (as a result of lacking a functional pen), as Harry's universe started growing. That very evening she began writing the first drafts of the Philosopher's Stone. Not long after this, in December the same year, her mother passed away of multiple sclerosis. This affected both Jo and her family, but also Harry Potter. His feelings about his dead parents became much deeper and real.
Jo left for Portugal nine months after her mother's death. Desperate to get away for a while, her job offer of teaching English in a foreign country was much welcomed. In Portugal, she was able to continue writing her first novel, but something else changed her life forever. She met her first husband, and they had a daughter in 1993. The marriage didn't work out, and Jo moved back to Scotland with her daughter Jessica just in time for Christmas in 1994.
It was during this time that Jo became determined to not only finish her Harry Potter novel, but to get it published. The Fulham-based Christopher Little Literary Agents agreed to represent Jo, and the quest for a publisher began. The book was handed to twelve publishing houses, but every single one rejected it. (And probably regrets that decision today!) It took a year before she finally found a publisher. The small publisher Bloomsbury decided to print only 1000 copies of the book, and advised her to get a day job, as she had little chance of making money in children's books. Oh, how things changed.
After Bloomsbury published the first Harry Potter book in June 1997, it wasn't long before Jo was recognized as a major discovery. She quickly recieved several awards, including The British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year, and the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. In the fall of 1998, Scholastic published Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the United States, but changed the title to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Jo has later said she regrets not fighting this decision, but at that time she wasn't in the position to do so.
The sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was published in July 1998 in the UK, and in June 1999 in the United States. This second book also won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, and the third book in the series was published soon after. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was published in both the UK and the United States in 1999, respectively in July and September.
In December that same year, Rowling became the first person to win the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize three times in a row, this time with Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban. Not only had she won this prize three times running, but at this point her three first Harry Potter books took over the top 3 places in the New York Times bestsellers list.
The summer of 2000 was a very special time for Jo. In June, Queen Elizabeth of England honoured Jo by making her an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. By the end of the summer, Jo had reportedly earned over 400 million dollars for her first three books. Her fourth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, pre-sold over one million advanced copies, with a first printing of 5.3 million. Because of her domination and incredible success on the New York Times bestseller list, a decision was made to introduce a bestseller list for children's books. This brought a tremendous amount of relief and happiness to a lot of competing authors - and a tremendous honour to Jo.
To this date, all her published books in the Harry Potter series has broken sales records. The last three books in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, have all been the fastest-selling books in history. Book 6 of her series earned The Guinness World Records Award for being the fastest selling book ever.
As for her personal life after the Harry Potter rollercoaster ride began, Jo married Dr. Neil Murray in December 2001. They had their first child together in 2003, a son named David Gordon. In 2005, Jo and Neil had their second child, a daughter named Mackenzie Jean.
Jo's currently writing the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series, and we'll just have to wait and see what records that will break.
Sources: Jo's Official Website, Scholastic, Wikipedia, IMDb, Biography.com and Essortment.