[181] As of 2020, she also owns a 4.5million Georgian house in Kensington and a 2million home in Edinburgh. [82] Having no pen or paper allowed her to fully explore the characters and their story in her imagination before she reached her flat and began to write. Chapter 3: A New Pyre. [349][350] According to scholars, this shows that modern readers feel a sense of ownership over the text that is independent of, and sometimes contradicts, authorial intent. [133] She bought a flat in Edinburgh with the money from the sale. JK Rowling has offered hope to aspiring authors everywhere, after revealing that the first literary agent she sent the manuscript of Harry Potter to responded with just a slip of paper rejecting . [103] Tison Pugh writes that the "grinding effects of poverty, coupled with her concern for providing for her daughter as a single parent, caused great hardship". [20] The three walked to and from school, sharing stories about their day, more like sisters than mother and daughters. Hogwarts Houses that reflected your best personality traits and talents, bespoke wands that respond to your unique abilities, and animal patronuses that reveal your souls true coreall these things appeal to our need for self-definition and categorization, like your Astrology sign or love language or Meyers-Briggs test results. Anne was with the Wrens and Pete was with the Royal Navy. [403] Rowling dislikes the British tabloid the Daily Mail,[404] which she successfully sued in 2014 for libel about her time as a single mother. [229][230], Rowling is known primarily as an author of fantasy and children's literature. [91] By mid-1992, they were planning a trip to London to introduce Arantes to Rowling's family, when she had a miscarriage. [390] She has at times used Twitter unreservedly to reach her Harry Potter fans and followers. The most recent interview Rowling's ex-husband gave to the media was in 2000, with the New York Post. [346] Driven by the growth of the internet, fan fiction about the series proliferated and has spawned a diverse community of readers and writers. The pair met while he was a student aged 23 in Porto, Portugal. They married in 1992 and separated in . JK Rowling has claimed that every woman who has been "harassed, silenced or bullied" for gender critical views is safer after a campaigner won an employment tribunal. JK Rowling began writing novels in her preteen years, focusing on fantasy stories which she could read to her younger sister, Dianne. JK Rowling's first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy, is thought to feature a 'vile' character based on her father Four of the seven novels later fetched 50,000, while the rest failed to reach their reserve price. [163] In a 2012 interview, she said she belonged to the Scottish Episcopal Church. A new podcast called 'The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling,' featuring interviews with the 'Harry Potter' author herself, digs into the controversy surrounding Rowling's remarks about the . [422], When Maya Forstater's employment contract with the London branch of the Center for Global Development was not renewed after she tweeted gender-critical views,[393][423] Rowling responded in December 2019 with a tweet that transgender people should live their lives as they pleased in "peace and security", but questioned women being "force[d] out of their jobs for stating that sex is real". [10] Early in Rowling's life, the support of her mother and sister instilled confidence and enthusiasm for storytelling. I admit that at first, I had a hard time reconciling the world that meant so much to me as a child and adolescent with the more troubling one I see as an adultand especially its creator. [101] Her old school friend, Sean Harris, lent her 600 ($900), which allowed her to move to a flat in Leith,[104] where she finished Philosopher's Stone. [46][47] Smith writes that Rowling "craved to play heavy electric guitar",[48] and describes her as "intelligent yet shy". The series has sold over 600 million copies, been translated into 84 languages, and spawned a global media franchise including films and . The pair met while he was a student aged 23 in Porto, Portugal. [262] In some scholars' view, while Rowling's narrative appears on the surface to be about Harry, her focus may actually be on Snape's morality and character arc. Jk Rowling tweets over Transgender identity (Source: Thetimes.co.uk) She also claimed that Rowling employed an "insulting stereotype" to characterize a trans woman, portraying her as violent and highlighting her body in the book . [10] When Joanne was four, the family moved to Winterbourne, Gloucestershire. The future of the characters in the Harry Potter books didn't end with the epilogue, set nineteen years after book seven. [92] The relationship was troubled, but they married on 16 October 1992. [227] Rowling also draws on the tradition of stories set in boarding schools, a major example of which is Thomas Hughes's 1857 volume Tom Brown's School Days. The series has been viewed as a Christian moral fable in the psychomachia tradition, in which stand-ins for good and evil fight for supremacy over a person's soul. [107] She filed for divorce on 10 August 1994;[109] the divorce was finalised on 26 June 1995. She was not even invited to the 20th Anniversary Reunion Special on HBO Max. [11][80] In 1990, she planned to move with her boyfriend to Manchester,[16] and frequently took long train trips to visit. Rowling has previously liked a tweet for an anti-trans essay on Medium, according to a story by Burns for Them. "Hermione Granger goes to war". [472], Sources differ on the precise name of Rowling's place of birth. [40] In mid-1990, she was on a train delayed by four hours from Manchester to London,[81] when the characters Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger came plainly into her mind. After a couple of decades of "Harry Potter," Rowling has turned the boy wizard into an entertainment franchise including books, movies, a play, a theme park, and more. She said Mitford had "been my heroine since I was 14 years old, when I overheard my formidable great-aunt discussing how Mitford had run away at the age of 19 to fight with the Reds in the Spanish Civil War", and that what inspired her about Mitford was that she was "incurably and instinctively rebellious, brave, adventurous, funny and irreverent, she liked nothing better than a good fight, preferably against a pompous and hypocritical target". Overnight, Rowling was catapulted from her small apartment in Edinburgh to worldwide recognition. ", "J.K. Rowling's 'transphobia' tweet row spotlights a fight between equality campaigners and radical feminists", "JK Rowling responds to trans tweets criticism", "Judith Butler on the culture wars, JK Rowling and living in 'anti-intellectual times', "BBC nominates J.K.Rowling's controversial essay of trans rights for award", "Stephen King, Margaret Atwood and Roxane Gay champion trans rights in open letter", "Artists fire back at J.K. Rowling's anti-trans remarks, share messages in support of the community", "Universal Parks responds to J.K. Rowling tweets: 'Our core values include diversity, inclusion and respect', "WB Interactive president responds to ongoing debate over supporting JK Rowling", "J.K. Rowling criticized after tweeting support for anti-transgender researcher", "Maya Forstater: woman wins tribunal appeal over transgender tweets", "Gender-critical views are a protected belief, appeal tribunal rules", "Mermaids writes open letter to JK Rowling following her recent comments on trans people", "Daniel Radcliffe criticizes J.K. Rowling's anti-transgender tweets", "J.K. Rowling gets backlash over anti-trans tweets", "Children's news website apologises to JK Rowling over trans tweet row", "Eddie Redmayne criticizes J.K. Rowling's anti-trans tweets", "Ralph Fiennes defends J.K. rowling amid trans controversy, says backlash is 'disturbing', "Every Harry Potter actor who's spoken out against J.K. Rowling's controversial trans comments", "Stephen Fry defends 'friendship' with JK Rowling: 'I'm sorry that people are upset', "Helena Bonham Carter says Johnny Depp 'completely vindicated' in defamation trial, and J.K. Rowling 'hounded' for transgender stance", "How the 'Harry Potter' reunion addresses author J.K. Rowling's anti-trans controversy", "J.K. Rowling reveals she's a sexual assault survivor; Emma Watson reacts to trans comments", "J.K. Rowling reveals past abuse and defends right to speak on trans issues", "JK Rowling reveals she is survivor of domestic abuse and sexual assault", "J.K. Rowling defends trans statements in lengthy essay, reveals she's a sexual assault survivor & says 'trans people need and deserve protection', "J.K. Rowling doubles down in what some critics call a 'transphobic manifesto', "JK Rowling receives support from Ian McEwan and Frances Barber amid 'transphobia' row", "Harry Potter fan sites distance themselves from JK Rowling over transgender rights", "The battle for Stonewall: the LGBT charity and the UK's gender wars", "Dave Chappelle says he's 'Team TERF,' defends J.K. Rowling in new Netflix comedy special", "JK Rowling returns human rights award to group that denounces her trans views", "JK Rowling and the bitter battle of the book world", "Maya Forstater: who is woman in employment tribunal over transgender comments? [n] She began attending a Church of Scotland congregation, where Jessica was christened, around the time she was writing Harry Potter. [114] Still needing money and expecting to make a living by teaching,[115] Rowling began a teacher training course in August 1995 at Moray House School of Education[116][a] after completing her first novel. J. K. Rowling's secret life as a wizard crime writer revealed", "This detective novel's story doesn't add up", "JK Rowling unmasked as author of acclaimed detective novel", "JK Rowling directs anger at lawyers after secret identity revealed", "Lethal White: JK Rowling reveals Strike release date", "JK Rowling announces fifth Cormoran Strike novel Troubled Blood under pseudonym Robert Galbraith", "The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith review: JK Rowling's Strike faces the social media trolls", "When is Strike: The Cuckoo's Calling on TV? [150] [98] Rowling and Arantes separated on 17 November 1993 after Arantes threw her out of the house; she returned with the police to retrieve Jessica and went into hiding for two weeks before she left Portugal. Born in July 1965, J. K. Rowling is an author and screenwriter who rose to prominence in the mid-90s when the first of the seven "Harry Potter" books was released. [257], While Harry Potter can be viewed as a story about good versus evil, its moral divisions are not absolute. [286], Reception of Rowling's later works has varied among critics. J.K. Rowling born Joanne Rowling grew up in Gloucestershire, England, and always knew she wanted to be an author. Advertisement. [379] She gave an additional 15.3million to the centre in 2019. [382] To support COVID-19 relief, she donated six-figure sums to both Khalsa Aid and the British Asian Trust from royalties for The Ickabog. J.K. Rowling has been facing criticism for her 2020 controversial tweets on the trans community, and she recently said that people who claim she 'ruined' her legacy with these comments have misunderstood her 'profoundly. People have gotten Harry Potter tattoos and themed weddingsincluding my own sister. Courtesy of Warner Bros. AP Images. "By every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew," said Rowling. [84] Her mother died of multiple sclerosis on 30 December 1990. I was nine when I first read The Sorcerers Stone just the right age for the richly-drawn world to more than half convince me to expect a Hogwarts letter in two years, and I was 11 when the first film premiered, the same age as Harry, Ron and Hermione. On July 1, 2022, Rowling tweeted images of violence directed at her. Harry assumes in the first book that Quirrell is good because he opposes Snape, who appears malicious; in reality, their positions are reversed. [304] Other critics, including Farah Mendlesohn, find the portrayal of house-elves extremely troublesome; they are written as happy in their slavery, and Hermione's efforts on their behalf are implied to be nave. [52] She often wrote in cafs,[111] including Nicolson's, part-owned by her brother-in-law. [65][445] Criticism of Rowling's views has come from the Harry Potter fansites MuggleNet and The Leaky Cauldron;[446] and the charities Mermaids,[427] Stonewall,[447] and Human Rights Campaign. Site Management what happened to jk rowling career Harry Potter fan-fiction has flourished online, becoming a genre of its own. [318] The author and scholar Amanda Cockrell suggests that Harry Potter's popularity, and recent preoccupation with fantasy and the occult among Christian fundamentalists, explains why the series received particular opposition. [209][214], In The Christmas Pig, a young boy loses his favourite stuffed animal, a pig, and the Christmas Pig guides him through the fantastical Land of the Lost to retrieve it. QUICK FACTS. [236] Her narrative features two worlds the mundane and the fantastic but it differs from typical portal fantasy in that its magical elements stay grounded in the everyday. In, Heilman, Elizabeth E.; Donaldson, Trevor. [120] Following an enthusiastic report from an early reader,[121] Christopher Little Literary Agency agreed to represent Rowling. Best Known For: J.K. Rowling is the creator of the 'Harry Potter' fantasy series, one of the most popular book and film franchises in history. At the end of the essay, Rowling reveals some interesting information about what became of Draco after he left Hogwarts. J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 6, 2020 Daniel Radcliffe, the main star of the Harry Potter movie franchise, has publicly said that "transgender women are women". [140] It was published in June 2003, selling millions of copies on the first day. And this drug has not worked for everyone. [11][99] In late 1993, with a draft of Harry Potter in her suitcase,[31] Rowling moved with her daughter to Edinburgh, Scotland,[8] planning to stay with her sister until Christmas. [11] Sean Harris, her best friend in the Upper Sixth, owned a turquoise Ford Anglia that provided an escape from her difficult home life and the means for Harris and Rowling to broaden their activities. 2023 SheMedia, LLC. [448] After Kerry Kennedy expressed "profound disappointment" in her views, Rowling returned the Ripple of Hope Award given to her by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organisation. The seven-year period that followed saw the death of her mother, the birth of her first child, divorce from her first husband, and relative poverty until the first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published in 1997. She named another institution after her mother in 2010, when she donated 10million to found a multiple sclerosis research centre at the University of Edinburgh. [277] Michiko Kakutani praises Rowling's fictional world and the darker tone of the series' later entries. Honours & Awards J.K. Rowling has received many honours and awards, including: Companion of Honour, for services to literature and philanthropy, 2017 PEN America Literary Service Award, 2016 [144][145] Rowling accepted the offer with the provision that the studio only produce Harry Potter films based on books she authored,[146] while retaining the right to final script approval,[147] and some control over merchandising. [11][40] By this time, Rowling had finished the first three chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone almost as they were eventually published and had drafted the rest of the novel. J. K. Rowling is known worldwide for being the author of the world's most popular and highest-grossing franchise: Harry Potter. Their names often include morphemes that correspond to their characteristics: Malfoy is difficult, Filch unpleasant and Lupin a werewolf. [201] The series was picked up by HBO for distribution in the United States and Canada. "The fringe benefits of failure, and the importance of imagination". He even apologized to fans who are deeply affected by the exchange of comments online that resulted from the controversial tweet. [52] With the end of the relationship with her boyfriend, and "being made redundant from an office job in Manchester", Rowling described herself as being in a state of "fight or flight". Harry is a wizard who lives with his non-magical relatives until his eleventh birthday, when he is invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The award body gave Rowling the children's prize instead (worth half the cash amount), which some scholars felt exemplified a literary prejudice against children's books. As of 2023, J.K Rowling's net worth is roughly $1 billion dollars. She suffered severe bouts of depression but she persevered. Critical reception has been more mixed. [207] Rowling collaborated with writer Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany. [155] Crimes of Grindelwald was released in November 2018. [399] In 2015, Rowling joined 150 others in signing a letter published in The Guardian in favour of cultural engagement with Israel. [31] An advertisement in The Guardian led her to move to Porto, Portugal, in November 1991 to teach night classes in English as a foreign language,[90] writing during the day. She told fans Monday what she thinks happened . [40] She says she was not allowed to have a housekey and that her husband used the growing manuscript of her first book as a hostage. [267] The first three Harry Potter books occupied the top three spots of The New York Times bestseller list for more than a year; they were then moved to a newly created children's list. This pattern later recurs with Moody and Snape. Opinion Columnist. [61] Rowling's home life was complicated by her mother's illness[62] and a strained relationship with her father. "Monsters, creatures, and pets at Hogwarts: animal stewardship in the world of Harry Potter". [89], The pain of the loss of her mother was compounded when some personal effects her mother had left her were stolen. [302], Rowling's depictions of the status of magical non-humans is similarly debated. [224] Commentators also note similarities to the children's stories of Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl. [330] The next decade saw an increasing interest in grim, realist themes, with an outflow of fantasy readers and writers to adult works. [52] She described her time in Manchester, where she worked for the Chamber of Commerce[40] and at Manchester University in temp jobs,[83] as a "year of misery". They married in 1992 and separated in 1993. But. And many have taken the actors and film creators as Harry Potter standard-bearers rather than Rowling herself. [305] Pharr terms the house-elves a disharmonious element in the series, writing that Rowling leaves their fate hanging;[306] at the end of Deathly Hallows, the elves remain enslaved and cheerful. Image: Warner Bros. On Twitter, when Rowling isn't grousing about pronouns and spewing hateful nonsense about trans women, she's dropping random new canon into the Harry Potter universe.. And who doesnt have extremely messy and uncomfortable feelings about revisiting Woody Allens filmography? ", "HBO picks up 'Cormoran Strike' crama based on J.K. Rowling's crime novels", "Pottermore website launched by JK Rowling as 'give-back' to fans", "How much magic can 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' make on Broadway? [89] She does not believe in magic or witchcraft. [164] Rowling has stated that she believes in God,[165] but has experienced doubt,[166] and that her struggles with faith play a part in her books. [321][322] After the final volume was published, Rowling said she intentionally incorporated Christian themes, in particular the idea that love may hold power over death. [33] Biographer Sean Smith describes her teacher as a "battleaxe"[34] who "struck fear into the hearts of the children";[35] she seated Rowling in "dunces' row" after she performed poorly on an arithmetic test. 2052. [324][p] Crossovers were prevalent in 19th-century American and British fiction, but fell out of favour in the 20th century[326] and did not occur at the same scale. [11], Anne Rowling was diagnosed with a "virulent strain" of multiple sclerosis when she was 34[59] or 35 and Jo was 15,[60] and had to give up her job.
