9 interesting facts from the life of JK Rowling that helped her create Harry Potter
Joanne Rowling, is a well-known writer, author of the Harry Potter series of books. Her life is divided into two parts: “before Harry” and “after”, so Joan sometimes jokes that she should celebrate her birth twice a year.
The fate of the little girl, who loved reading more than anything in the world, was not very happy. A sick mother, a misunderstanding father, then - enough difficult relationships with classmates... But the grandmother takes care of the baby as best she can. Mainly in philology, giving it an excellent basis not only for school, but also partially for university. However, the girl fails to enter Oxford. She graduates from Exeter University and gets a job. And then love comes. “Move to Manchester? With you, even to the ends of the earth!” Joan gives up absolutely everything. And in vain - the relationship is not working out, there is no home, the money is running out... I have to return to London, alone, unemployed, tired. It was during this bleak return that the story of the creation of a truly epoch-making work begins - a book about the little wizard Harry Potter. We have selected some points from further biography Rowling who helped her and motivated her. Why did Joan's character turn out this way? Let's think together!
1. At a noisy station, a crazy thought comes to the writer’s head about a boy, equally confused and lonely:
After all, even as a child, Rowling entertained her sister fantastic stories , which she came up with “during the course of the play.” "Harry? And his last name will be Potter, the same as my only childhood friend Ian!”.
2. Joan writes her first book in a cafe. Why? It’s just that no one believed in her success, not even herself. And then there was a sharp deterioration in the health of the already sick mother. Rowling is frantically looking for a job, at least some, but no one needs a professional philologist. She sits in a cafe during breaks between interviews, drinking coffee. another defeat and plunging into the world of dreams. Mother is dying. It feels like the world has collapsed! Even in current photographs, Rowling has sad eyes...
However, she finishes her work. And another “ordeal” begins - the manuscript is not accepted anywhere!
3. Purely by chance, one of the new employees another publishing house (it turned out to be Bloomsbury), the 13th, reads it in full and, greatly impressed, persuades the editor to publish several copies. How can one not remember the properties of the number 13? IN in this case it apparently decided that the woman had already suffered enough: the editor reluctantly agrees, at the same time advising Joan not to give up her search permanent job. Naive! Although... as we see, sometimes charity is beneficial - after all, Bloomsbury made a lot of money from the book.
4. The Scottish Arts Council, seeing the enormous success of the work, provides it with a grant. Rowling can now write comfortably without thinking about a piece of bread. In fact, such grants are very rare! Isn't this luck?
5. Little Joan, as we remember, loved to read as a child, and after receiving philological education taught English literature. That is why The beginning of the Harry Potter story is inevitably associated with Oliver Twist, - an unfortunate foundling who manages not to lose himself even when surrounded by people who openly mock him.
6. Hogwarts feels like a private English school both in terms of the organization of classes and the fact that children live here during their studies, coming home only for the holidays - the writer takes the real world as a basis. educational institution. But, unlike regular schools, in the school she invented, children LIKE to study. Isn't this a fairy tale? Fans create their own Hogwarts models:
The photo below shows a potions lesson. Why not a chemical laboratory with many different mysterious jars placed on the shelves?
7. The work is liked not only by children, but also by their parents. Why? It’s just that Rowling makes an unusual move: the emphasis is not only on the main character, but also on his family. Not all the adults in the book are unlikable; on the contrary, most of of them are people (wizards) with whom it is quite possible to come to an agreement. And Harry’s parents are almost always invisibly next to him. This is not the case either in “Baby and Carlson” or in “Pippi.” Long Stocking", neither in Carroll's Alice, nor even in the immortal children's books by Krapivin, Gaidar and Marshak - their heroes are always on their own, and most often hide their adventures from their parents.
8. Harry's Muggle school originated in Joan's mind, as a memory of her own school, where she was not loved. And Hermione? Of course it's her! Very Smart Girl who knows everything in the world.
9. Rowling wrote Harry Potter when she was VERY sick. Perhaps that is why her Harry became a wizard who can solve almost any problem with the help of magic wand? After all, it was, alas, impossible to perform a miracle in reality by saying a set of words - a spell...
The tragicomic novel sells out instantly, as does the right to film it. Is this due to the wave of success after Harry Potter? It seems that the writer is really seriously concerned about this issue, because... next work is a crime novel "The Cuckoo's Calling"(2013), she publishes under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. They did not want to publish the anonymous manuscript for a long time, but after three months of refusals, the publishing house Sphere Books finally decided. Ironically, it was the company that dealt with “The Casual Vacancy,” so when readers began to suspect the author was a woman because of the overly diverse descriptions of women’s wardrobes (and in the detective story they are investigating the death of a model), a parallel was drawn quite quickly. Unfortunately, we cannot yet assess the quality of the book personally - it is still not in Russian. However, Rowling plans to write a sequel. This means that we will certainly have the opportunity to find out Will private detective Cormoran Strike be a worthy competitor to Harry Potter?
The famous writer JK Rowling was born on July 31st. This year she turns 48 years old. In honor of her birthday, let's remember the most important facts from her life and career.
Rowling began writing her first stories as a child.
1. JK Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 in Gloucestershire. She has a younger sister, Diana.
2. As children, parents dressed their daughters in the same clothes, which differed only in colors: Joan’s was blue, and her sister’s was pink. The parents really wanted a boy.
3. Rowling began inventing her first stories as a child. According to her memoirs, she was the first to make up a story about a rabbit named Rabbit who had measles.
4. In 1983, Rowling entered the University of Exeter in Devon, where she studied French and Literature and received a B.A.
5. In 1990, Joan moved to Manchester, where she got a job as a teacher. in English. There she began to make her first sketches future book about Harry Potter.
6. In the same year, Joan's mother, Anna Rowling, died of multiple sclerosis, never knowing what phenomenal success her daughter would achieve.
Rowling typed the book “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” on an old typewriter.
7. In 1992, the writer married journalist Jorge Arantes and a year later gave birth to a daughter, Jessica. However, the marriage was unsuccessful - the couple divorced that same year, and Rowling returned to the UK. The writer fell into depression. She lived only on social benefit and, she said, was as poor as could be imagined.
8. Rowling typed the book “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” on an old typewriter. The first edition of the book was published in 1995, but no one saw any promise in the author. In 1997, the book was published again in a circulation of only a thousand copies and became a real triumph. Rowling's work received the Children's Book Award for Best Children's Book of the Year.
9. The second and third parts of the Harry Potter books also became “Best Children’s Books of the Year” according to the Children’s Book Award, and the fourth writer herself withdrew from participation in the competition to give other authors a chance.
10. Rowling signed her first publication as JK Rowling, but the publishers advised her to make a different signature - JK Rowling - to remove the name, suggesting that the target audience books - boys - will not want to read what a woman wrote.
11. In 1998, Warner Bros acquired the film rights to the first two books from Rowling. The first film was released in November 2001. The writer insisted that the films be shot in Britain and with the participation of British actors.
12. In 2000, Rowling was awarded the Order of the British Empire.
Rowling worked on the Harry Potter novel for 17 years.
13. In the same year, she created the Volant Charitable Trust, which fights poverty and social inequality. The foundation funds organizations that help children, single-parent families, and also conducts research into multiple sclerosis.
14. In 2001, Joan married again - to anesthesiologist Neil Michael Murray. She took her husband's surname, although she publishes books under her old pseudonym. In her marriage, she had two children - a son, David, and a daughter, Mackenzie, to whom her book “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” was dedicated.
15. Rowling worked on the Harry Potter novel for 17 years. The work was completed in February 2007.
16. In 2008, JK Rowling became the richest woman in Britain according to Forbes.
17. In 2011, Joan, along with the producers and directors of the Potter series, received the British Academy Film Awards for outstanding British contribution into cinematography.
18. In 2012, the writer’s first book after the Harry Potter series, “The Casual Vacancy,” was published. In the first three weeks after its release, more than a million copies were sold. In the same year, the BBC decided to film the work as a series.
The woman who created the beloved fabulous Hogwarts world and the wizard Harry Potter, is truly unique and amazing person with complicated history success. Once unemployed, JK Rowling is now the best-selling writer and one of the most influential people in the world. Below are eight interesting facts from her life.
1. JK Rowling had to endure difficult times. After five years of living on state benefit she made a decision that changed her life and brought her fame and fortune.
2. It is known that brilliant ideas can appear anytime, anywhere. Rowling came up with the idea for the Harry Potter book while she was waiting on a train from Manchester to London in 1990. She was extremely passionate and began writing a book. Almost everyone knows what this led to.
3. JK Rowling was six years old when she wrote her first story called "Rabbit". She later tried her hand at writing a novel, but was unable to finish it. This was long before she wrote the Potter series.
4. A strong character is born from life experience and working on yourself. Rowling's works turned out to be so inspiring that they were appreciated by readers. However, very few people know that the writer has one of the difficult periods her life was diagnosed with clinical depression. This led to the creation of the Dementors in the Potter series. In addition, Joan suffered from insomnia due to constant overwork.
5. Rowling married journalist Jorge Arantes. During this time she worked as an English teacher in Portugal. Later, the couple started having problems and divorced.
6. The publisher advised her to take the pseudonym J.K. to make her work anonymous, since it was assumed that a book about a wizard written by a woman would not be taken seriously. The initial K comes from her grandmother Kathleen's name. At first, fans began their letters to her with the address Dear Sir (dear sir).
7. When Rowling finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, 12 publishers rejected the manuscript, doubting whether the book would sell. Then a small publishing house, Bloomsbury, gave Joan a chance. No one then imagined that last book from the Harry Potter series will break all sales records.
8. After huge success books about Harry Potter, Rowling decided to go further and wrote the novel “The Casual Vacancy”. She is currently working on two other books, one of which is aimed at young children.
JK Rowling's biography is a story of stories. She proved that hard work, perseverance, confidence and, of course, talent can make a hero out of anyone.
July 31- this is not only the birthday of the favorite character of millions of people around the world, Harry Potter , but also the author of a series of books about “the boy who lived” - Joanne Rowling . Probably everyone knows that Harry was born in 1990 on a napkin, while Rowling, who was still barely making ends meet, was waiting for the train, but not everyone knows that:
The need for initials, which the publishers intended to hide the author’s gender, forced Joan to choose some letter in addition to “J” and she decided to settle on “Kay” in memory of her beloved grandmother. By the way, due to the fact that it was initially unknown who wrote the Harry saga - a man or a woman - the first letter from a fan began: “Dear sir.” Herself J.K. she later said: “It was the decision of the publishing house, but they could call me whatever they wanted, even Enid Snodgrass, I didn’t care - I just really wanted the book to be published.”
One of the Edinburgh coffee shops where Joan wrote her first books, accompanied by her sleeping daughter Jessica.
There's a very personal reason why King's Cross plays like this important role in the life of Harry and his friends (it is from here that young wizards leave platform 9 3/4 every year to study at Hogwarts). This London station is where the parents of today's birthday girl meet. "For me, King's Cross is a very, very romantic place, the most romantic train station purely because my parents first met here. So this place has always been part of our family 'folklore'. I wanted Harry to get to Hogwarts by train and, of course, it was supposed to depart from King’s Cross,” Joan said in an interview. By the way, in addition to their birthday, Rowling and Potter have one more fact in common - both fathers' names were James.
"Usually the inspiration for creating a character comes from real people, but once they're in your head, they turn into something else. Professor Snape and Gilderoy Lockhart both "started out" as exaggerated versions of people I knew, but they turned out different on the pages of the book. But Hermione looks like me at 11 years old, only she is much smarter." Apparently, this is why Hermione's patronus is Rowling's favorite animal - the otter.
At 25, Joan became a single mother after a short, “disastrous” marriage. In an interview, the writer and screenwriter said: “It dawned on me what a mess was going on in my life. We were as poor as possible without becoming homeless, we lived on benefits. And at that moment I fell into the deepest depression. It’s difficult to describe "This is a state for someone who has never been in it, because it is not sadness. I know sadness. When you are sad, you cry, you feel something. Depression is a cold absence of feelings, emptiness. These are the dementors."
Quidditch was invented in a hotel in Manchester after a quarrel with his then-boyfriend. “I thought about the fact that sport unites society, that men are acutely worried about events on the playing field, they get angry, which was very useful in my state,” Rowling wrote in a book dedicated to the most popular game “Potteriana”. Joan considers basketball to be the Muggle version of Quidditch. In an interview Amazon she said: “There needed to be a game for wizards, and I always wanted there to be a game with more than one ball. I thought this idea was funny. I had a lot of fun coming up with the rules - I still have a notebook with diagrams, diagrams and all the names for balls that came into my head before I settled on the Quaffle, Bludger and Snitch."
“After finishing the books about Harry, I realized that the character I would like to have dinner with is Dumbledore. We have something to discuss and I would be glad to have his advice. I think everyone would like to meet Dumbledore in their life,” she once said. then Rowling, adding that she often dreams about Albus. The name "Dumbledore" has its own backstory - it means "bee" in Old English, and the author chose it because she "imagined the professor humming to himself."
In books about the “boy who lived,” the number seven, one of the most powerful magic numbers, occupies a special place:
- There are seven books about Harry;
- education at Hogwarts lasts seven years;
- there are seven players on the Quidditch team;
- Voldemor has seven Horcruxes;
- the Weasley family has seven children;
- there are seven locks on Professor Moody's chest;
- Harry escaped death at the hands of Voldemort seven times before he killed him.
Living in Winterbourne, near Bristol, little Joan met and became friends with the Potters - brother and sister. The girl liked their last name more than her own, which was always either mispronounced or transformed into nicknames like rolling pin, that is, "rolling pin".
Rowling's eldest daughter, born in a short, as we remember, marriage with television journalist Jorge Arantes, is named after Jessica Mitford: “Mitford has been my idol since I was 14 years old. My great-aunt told how, at the age of 19, Jessica ran away from home to Spain, to the very epicenter of civil war, while secretly buying a camera with his father’s money. It was the camera that hooked me, and I began to ask about future fate this girl."
In 2001, Joan married for the second time - her chosen one was the doctor Neil Murray, with whom the writer has two children in common: a son and a daughter. Due to the overwhelming popularity of her books, Rowling had to buy her wedding dress incognito, resorting to disguise for the first time: "I just wanted to marry Neil without any extra fuss." But we never found out how and with what help the disguise was carried out. “What if I have to use it again?” Joan told inquisitive journalists.
"A bracelet covered in charms seems like a cool little thing at first glance. But what other piece of jewelery is so filled with memories? These are personal amulets. I had an adored bracelet for 20 years, but one day it was stolen from my flat in Manchester, along with all the contents of the box. I lost not only the bracelet, but also the jewelry that I inherited from my mother, who died just three months before. Compared to the loss of my mother, this was a small thing, but I was very upset. Jewelry does not change, does not deteriorate, it’s a kind of guide to the past,” Rowling shared with readers Harper's Bazaar. On the day of the publication of the seventh Harry book, the editor Bloomsbury, Emma, gave Joan a gold bracelet with charms based on Potter: a little golden snitch, a silver car Ford Anglia, pensieve and patronus in the form of a deer and philosopher's stone, and, according to the writer, it was the most expensive piece of jewelry for her after the wedding ring.
Both actors admitted that at one time they were in love with “Hermione” and the awkwardness associated with this circumstance sometimes prevented them from concentrating on the text of the script. True, when the feelings subsided and the young actors became just friends, filming some scenes was also not easy: for example, during the kiss between Daniel and Emma, “Ron” laughed so much that he had to be taken out film set. By the way, according to the director’s idea, before filming began, this trinity, inseparable in the plot, had to write a short essay about their characters in order to “get to know” them better. The result was in the spirit of Harry, Ron and Hermione: Emma Watson wrote 16 pages, Daniel limited himself to one sheet, and Rupert did not submit his essay at all.
This Canadian girl adored Harry and, alas, was terminally ill. Her mother asked Rowling to write Natalie a letter. The message reached the writer too late, and Joan’s response, in which she told her fan about future fate each of the heroes was received by a grief-stricken mother. The women kept up a correspondence and subsequently became friends, with Natalie becoming part of Gryffindor house for her bravery and resilience in the face of leukemia.
From short essay posted on the website Pottermore, we learned that Joan feels guilty about the death Floriana Fortescue- the owner of the ice cream parlor in Diagon Alley: “I made sure he was kidnapped and killed for no reason. He is not the first wizard to be killed by Voldemort, but he is the only one who makes me feel remorse, because his death is my fault." The original idea was that Fortescue would help the Hogwarts trio in their search for the Horcruxes: "Florian was supposed to be "guide" in the search for clues, so I introduced him to Harry at the very beginning of our story. The problem was that, having started writing key points Deathly Hallows, I decided that Phineas Nigellus Black would be a more convenient source of information.”
One of Rowling's most prized possessions is the first edition of Jane Austen's book: "She's my favorite writer, I've read her books so many times that I've lost count... If only I could become literary character then I would Elizabeth Bennett, of course." Another book heroine who sank into my heart is Jo March from "Little Women", because "she had an explosive temper and an irresistible desire to write books." But to dine on of all the writers - living or already deceased - Joan I would like with Charles Dickens.
But Rowling is not at all worried about this. She hasn’t seen the film either and doesn’t plan to.
And her first devoted reader was her younger sister, Diana. The book was about a rabbit named...Rabbit, who did a lot of things atypical for his long-eared companions. “Once I realized that books were written, I understood the concept of writing stories, all I wanted to do was write. I don’t remember wanting to do anything else in my life,” Rowling said in an interview with the TV channel ABC.
"I'm really sorry to upset my fans, and maybe some of them will be angry with me, but to be completely honest, Lately“, moving away from this story, I understand that I then made a choice in favor of Ron purely for literary reasons and so as not to change the originally planned plot,” Joan said in a recent interview. “Mrs. Weasley” also agrees with her: “ I'm sure there are fans who also doubt whether Ron could make Hermione happy." Emma Watson.
After finishing work on the seventh book, she left the following inscription on a bust in a Scottish hotel room Balmoral: "JK Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on January 11, 2007". But this is far from the author’s most highly artistic painting dedicated to her beloved Harry - in Rowling’s house there is this independently decorated chair:
Having lived for so many years on the brink of poverty, she is not fully aware of her current well-being. When asked by Oprah Winfrey if she had accepted the fact that she would now always be rich, Rowling replied: “No, what about you?”, referring to the psychological, rather than the monetary, side of the issue. But periodic bursts of concern for the well-fed future of her family do not at all prevent Joan from doing charity work: helping orphans and financing funds to support people suffering from incurable diseases.
We sincerely congratulate the “Cinderella of the world of literature” on her birthday and hope that she will continue to delight us with new books both under her own name and !
JK Rowling is one of the most successful writers in world history. She leads an amazing life - she managed to turn from a desperate single mother into a philanthropist and millionaire. She is the author of the Harry Potter books, a connection that lasts forever. But there are also facts not related to magical world, for example, telling about the writer’s difficult past or her literary preferences. So here are nineteen facts you don't know.
Her parents didn't graduate from university
Rowling herself studied French and classic literature, but her parents didn’t have higher education. Her father worked as an engineer at the Rolls-Royce plant, and her mother was a laboratory assistant at school.
Her mother died when Rowling was twenty-five.
The writer's mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis"even when my daughter was a teenager. She died from complications related to the disease before the premiere of the first book in the famous series. Joan admits that coping with her mother’s illness was not easy for her. She later donated sixteen million dollars to a neurological clinic studying multiple sclerosis.
She named her daughter after her favorite writer
Daughter Jessica was named after Jessica Mitford, a British writer and activist who died in 1996. Mitford's journalistic memoirs were given to Joan by her aunt when she was fourteen, and the book became one of her favorites. The celebrity admitted that she was captivated by how Mitford remained true to herself throughout her life. She read all her works.
She made sure there were no burgers or cola in the theme park
Orlando has theme park, dedicated to Harry Potter, it opened in 2010. The character's writer actively controlled its creation. For example, initially the organizers wanted to use typical fast food food. Joan insisted that visitors be able to experience a complete immersion in fairy world, so the park serves butterbeer, shepherd's pie and fish and chips.
She had problems with a literary agent
When a writer becomes popular, problems always arise related to the people who were around at the beginning of the career. Christopher Little was a relatively unknown agent when he decided to pitch the Harry Potter tale in 1995. The manuscript was rejected by dozens of publishers. Then Bloomsbury accepted it, the book became a hit, and Little, like the writer, earned a huge amount of money. It turned out to be the most successful relationship in literary history. However, in 2011, the writer decided to use the services of another literary agency, created by Little’s former business partner, Neil Blair. Little wanted to go to court, but he was paid compensation.
She hasn't spoken to her father since 2003
The writer's relationship with her father, Peter Rowling, has always been difficult. Usually she is silent about this. According to a 2012 interview, she has not spoken to him since 2003. One of the reasons for the breakup was that Peter sold a copy of her book, a gift from his daughter, signed by her “With love from your daughter.” He received almost fifty thousand dollars for the book.
She is the president of an organization supporting single parents
She once raised a child alone - her relationship with her first husband lasted just over a year. The celebrity knows full well how difficult this can be. She is the head charitable organization, which provides support to families.
She talks openly about her depression
She sought the help of a therapist several times to treat her depression. She had two in particular difficult periods, when she was still writing her first book and living on the brink of poverty, raising her daughter. Then her life changed because of fame, but it was still hard. She was ready to commit suicide.
The first edition of Harry Potter was in five hundred copies.
Bloomsbury was quite modest when it published the first book in the UK, and there were no ambitions for this tale. Joan received a deposit of two and a half thousand pounds.
She doesn't have a "K" in her name.
On English writer signed with the initials J.K., but there is no letter “K” in her name - she was advised to use such initials by the publishing house so as not to scare off boys female name on the cover. Joan doesn't have a middle name, but she chose it herself - Kathleen was her grandmother's name.
Books premiered at different times in different countries.
The popularity of books grew rapidly, and the opening of sales at night became a tradition. With each new book, people gathered in lines outside the stores until the clock showed midnight - after which they could buy the next volume. It would be logical to organize a similar process in all countries, but this only happened with the fourth book and subsequent ones. For the first time, a whole year passed between the premiere of a book in Britain and, for example, in the States!
She went incognito to look for a wedding dress.
While preparing for her wedding to Neil Murray in 2001, Rowling feared that her fame would interfere with her ability to choose a dress. She disguised herself! She did not reveal the details of the disguise in case she needed it again.
She spends a day every week giving to charity
Rowling has become famous for her philanthropy - she spends millions of dollars on charity. She even disappeared from the list of billionaires because she spent the money on helping other people. Every week she spends a whole day doing charity work.
She's planning a crime series that will be longer than Potter
In addition to fairy tales, the writer creates detective stories under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The first book was published in 2013, and two more have appeared since then. Joan says the episode will be more than fabulous.
Her favorite writer is Jane Austen
The celebrity admits that she has read all her books so many times that she simply lost count.
Her favorite living author is Irishman Roddy Doyle
She wrote part of an unpublished children's book on a dress
In addition to books about Potter, the writer’s novels are created in the genre of realism. However, she had another fairy tale, Joan is not going to publish it, but she once wrote it on a dress for a theme party.
She wrote a song
For the film " Fantastic Beasts and where they live" Joan created the song.
Her favorite drink is gin and tonic
She is among the writers who have their own signature alcoholic drinks, but her choice is not butterbeer at all!