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Joanne Rowling, OBE (born
31 July 1965 in Yate), commonly known as J.K. Rowling (pronunciation:
role-ing, as in rolling stone) is a British fiction writer. Rowling is
most famous for authoring the Harry Potter fantasy series, which have
gained international attention and have won multiple awards. In February
2004, Forbes magazine estimated her fortune as £576 million, making her
the first person to become a US dollar billionaire by writing books;
Rowling is also the wealthiest woman in the United Kingdom, well ahead
of even Queen Elizabeth II.
* * * *
Early Life
J.K. Rowling was born in
Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom in 1965. Together with
her mother, father, and younger sister, Diana, she moved to
Winterbourne, Bristol and then to Tutshill near Chepstow. She attended
secondary school at Wyedean Comprehensive, where she told stories to her
fellow students. In 1990, her 45-year-old mother succumbed to a
decade-long battle with multiple sclerosis.
After studying French and
Classics at Exeter University, with a year of study in Paris, she moved
to London to work as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty
International. During this period, she had the idea for a story of a
young boy attending a school of wizardry while she was on a four-hour,
delayed train trip between Manchester and London. When she had reached
her destination, she already had the characters and a good part of the
plot for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in her head, which she
began working on during her lunch hours.
Rowling then moved to
Oporto, Portugal, to teach English as a foreign language. While there
she married Portuguese TV journalist Jorge Arantes on 16 October 1992.
They had one child, Jessica Rowling Arantes (born 27 July 1993), before
their divorce in 1995.
In December, 1994, she and
her daughter moved to be near her sister in Edinburgh. Unemployed and
living on state benefits, she completed her first novel, doing some of
the work in an Edinburgh cafe. (There is a widely circulated rumour that
she wrote in a local cafe in order to escape from her unheated flat -
but according to the author this is false).
After Harry
Rowling's publisher,
Bloomsbury, wanted to use initials on the cover of the Harry Potter
books, suggesting that if they used an obviously female name, the target
group of young boys might be reluctant to buy them. Rowling chose to
adopt her grandmother's name, Kathleen, for the middle initial.
Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone was a huge success, and she has thus far published
four sequels. The sales made her a multi-millionaire, and in 2001, she
purchased a luxurious 19th-century mansion, Killiechassie House, on the
banks of the River Tay in Perthshire, Scotland, where she married her
second husband, Dr. Neil Murray, on 26 December 2001.
The Harry Potter series is
expected to run to seven volumes, one for each year Harry spends in
school. Five of these have already been published. The fifth book,
titled Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was delayed by an
unsuccessful plagiarism suit directed towards her by rival author Nancy
Stouffer (see below). Rowling took some time off from writing at this
point, because during the process of writing the fourth book she felt
her workload was too heavy. She said that at one point she had
considered breaking her arm to get out of writing, because the pressure
on her was too much. After forcing her publishers to drop her deadline,
she enjoyed three years of quiet writing, commenting that she spent some
time working on something else that she might return to when she is
finished with the Harry Potter series. The fifth book was released on 21
June 2003.
In late 2003, she was
approached by television producer Russell T. Davies to contribute an
episode to the British television science-fiction series Doctor Who.
Although she was "amused by the suggestion", she turned the offer down,
as she was busy working on the next novel in the Potter series. On 20
December 2004 she announced that the sixth Harry Potter book would be
released on 16 July 2005.
Rowling has also made a
guest appearance as herself on the American cartoon show The Simpsons,
in a special British-themed episode entitled "The Regina Monologues".
The Harry Potter books
-
Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (June 26, 1997) (titled Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States)
-
Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)
-
Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (September 8, 1999)
-
Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire (July 8, 2000)
-
Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (June 21, 2003)
-
Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 16, 2005)
Harry Potter-related
books:
Quidditch Through the Ages
(2001)
Fantastic Beasts and Where
to Find Them (2001)
The last two purport to be
facsimiles of books mentioned in the novels. Fantastic Beasts is a
textbook, while Quidditch is probably the most popular book in the
Hogwart's library. They are complete with handwritten annotations and
scribblings in the margins, and include introductions by Albus
Dumbledore. All proceeds from them go to the UK Comic Relief charity.
She has contributed money and support to many other charitable causes,
especially research and treatment of multiple sclerosis, from which her
mother died in 1990. This death heavily affected her writing, according
to Rowling.
Harry Potter movies
A film version of Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released in late 2001 and Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in 2002.
A darker atmosphere was
adopted in the film version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,
attributed to the new director, Alfonso Cuarón. Rowling, who was a fan
of Cuarón's work prior to the third film, has stated that the third film
is her personal favorite.
Rowling resisted
suggestions by the filmmakers that the movies should be filmed in the
United States or cast with American actors (only one American appears in
the first film). She only reluctantly went along with changing
Philosopher's Stone to Sorcerer's Stone, and limited it to the U.S.
only. Rowling's insistence on British actors for the main roles resulted
in Steven Spielberg passing on the opportunity to direct the series.
Rowling assists Steve
Kloves in writing the scripts for the films, ensuring that his scripts
do not contradict future books in the series. She says she has told him
more about the later books than anybody else, but not everything. She
has also said that she has told Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane certain
secrets about their characters that are not yet revealed.
Lawsuits
Rowling has been involved
in a lawsuit over the Harry Potter series, and other litigation has been
suggested or rumoured.
Nancy Stouffer
In the late 1990s Nancy
Stouffer, an author of children's books published in the 1980s, began to
charge publicly that Rowling's books were based on her books, including
The Legend of Rah and the Muggles and Larry Potter and His Best Friend
Lilly. In 2001 Rowling, Scholastic Press (the American publisher of her
books) and Warner Bros. (the producer of the film adaptations) sued
Stouffer, asking the court to judge that there was no infringement of
Stouffer's trademarks or copyright. Stouffer, who had not previously
sued, then filed counterclaims alleging such infringement.
Rowling and her colitigants
argued that much of the evidence that Stouffer presented was fraudulent,
and asked for sanctions and attorneys' fees as punishment. In September
2002 the court found in Rowling's favour, stating that Stouffer had lied
to the court and falsified and forged documents to support her case.
Stouffer was fined US$50,000 and ordered to pay part (but not all) of
the plaintiffs' costs.
In January 2004 it was
reported that Stouffer's appeal against the judgement had been rejected.
The appeals court agreed that Stouffer's claims were properly dismissed
because "no reasonable juror could find a likelihood of confusion as to
the source of the two parties' works". The Court explained:
Stouffer's and Plaintiffs'
marks are used in two very different ways. Rowling's use of the term "Muggles"
describes ordinary humans with no magical powers while Stouffer's "Muggles"
are tiny, hairless creatures with elongated heads. Further, the Harry
Potter books are novel-length works and whose primary customers are
older children and adults whereas Stouffer's booklets appeal to young
children. Accordingly, the District Court correctly dismissed Stouffer's
trademark claims.
Stouffer was also ordered
to pay the costs of the appeal. A report of the judgement can be found
at Entertainment Law Digest. The 2002 judgement can be found here:
ROWLING v. STOUFFER
New York Daily News
On 19 June 2003 Rowling and
her publisher Scholastic announced that they would sue the New York
Daily News for $100 million because the newspaper had printed
information on her work Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix before
the book's official release date. The novel was due for release on
Saturday 21 June, but the newspaper published a plot summary and short
quotes on the previous Wednesday. An accompanying image even revealed
two pages from the book with legible text. However, the story was
complicated further when it was revealed that the paper had purchased
the book from a health store whose owner received the novels wholesale
and decided to place them in the window. The man claimed he was unaware
he was supposed to wait until that Saturday.
Family
On 26 December 2001,
Rowling married Dr. Neil Murray (an anaesthetist) in a private ceremony
at her home in the Perthshire village of Aberfeldy. On 23 March 2003,
Rowling gave birth to her second child, a boy called David Gordon
Rowling Murray, at the Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health at the New
Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. On 23 January 2005, Rowling's second child
by Dr. Murray was born, fulfilling Rowling's lifelong wish to have three
children. The baby girl was named Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray.
* * * *
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Date Article Copied:
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