Who Is J.K Rowling?
J.K Rowling`s story is one of the most famous inspirational failures to the success story of our time. She had failed in almost everything she attempted to do in her life and at one point she considers herself a major failure. Most of the people only know her as a woman writer who created Harry Potter, but what people don`t know about the struggle she faces before reaching the stardom.
Joanne Rowling was born on 31st July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England to Peter James Rowling and Anne Rowling. Her father was a Rolls- Royce aircraft engineer and mother was a science technician. She had one little sister, Dianne, as a child Rowling loves to write fantasy stories and read them to her younger sister. When she was a teenager she got a chance to read Jessica Mitford`s autobiography, from then on Mitford become her heroine and after that, she read all her books
Book Inspiration and Mother`s Death
After working for Amnesty International as a researcher and bilingual secretary in London, Rowling moved to Manchester with her then-boyfriend where she worked at Chamber of Commerce. In 1990, Rowling first had the idea for Harry Potter, a story of a young boy who attends a school of wizards, while she was on a 4 hour delayed train trip from Manchester to London. While travelling the idea fully formed in her mind and when she reached her flat she began writing furiously. However, in December 1990 her mother died after 10 years of complications from Multiple Sclerosis. Mother`s death heavily affects Rowling and leave her extremely distraught and upset. Later she channelled her own feelings of her loss by writing about Harry`s feelings in her first book.
Marriage, Divorce and Single Mother
After a few months of her mother`s death, she moved to Portugal to teach the English language. There she met a man, fall in love with him, got married and gave birth to her daughter. In 1993 her marriage ended in Divorce and she with her infant daughter moved to Edinburgh Scotland to be closer to her sister. This is the most struggling time for Rowling and she saw herself as a complete failure. She was divorced, jobless, no money and a dependent child. Because of all this, she suffered bouts of depression and contemplated suicide. Eventually, she signed for Government-assisted welfare describing her economic status as poor. It was a really difficult time in her life but she kept going on and put all her energy on completing her novel.
Harry Potter
In 1995 Rowling completes her manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on an old manual typewriter. She was so poor at that time she could not afford a computer or even the cost of photocopying the novel, so she manually typed each copy and submitted to twelve publishing house in London. The manuscript was rejected almost dozens time until she was finally given chance with a £1,500 advance by a small London publisher, Bloomsbury after the company`s CEO`s little 8-year-old daughter fell in love with it after reading the first chapter of the book. In June 1997 Bloomsbury published first 1000 copies of Harry Potter series out of which 500 copies were distributed to libraries. Just five months later the book won Nestlé Smarties Book Prize its first award. In early 1998 an auction was held in America for the printing rights to publish the novel.
Scholastic Inc won the auction for USD 105,000, later Rowling said in an interview that she nearly died when she heard the news of this amount for printing her novel. Today Harry Potter is a global brand worth an estimated 15 billion dollars. The last four Harry Potter books have set the records for the fastest-selling books in history. The Harry Potter series totalling 4,195 pages have been translated either in whole or in part into 65 languages. The Harry Potter books series have also gained recognition for creating an interest in reading among the children’s at a time when they were more inclined towards the internet, computers and television. Financial Success In 2001 J.K Rowling purchased a 19th-century Killiechassie House, an estate house on the banks of the River Tay in Perth. She also owns a £4.5 million Georgian house in west London. In 2004, Forbes named Rowling as the first person to become a US-dollar billionaire by only writing books.
In 2017, according to Sunday Times, Rich List Rowling net worth was approx. £ 650 million.
Personal Life
Rowling and her second husband Neil Murray were married on 26th December 2001. They live in Edinburgh with their 3 children. Rowling was a runner-up in 2007 Time’s annual Person of the Year issue after Russia’s President Vladimir
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