A Delayed Train from Manchester
Joanne Rowling, also known by her pen name J.K. Rowling, is the British author who wrote Harry Potter, a seven-volume children's fantasy series that follows a young boy called Harry Potter, as he attends Hogwarts, a school for witchcraft and wizardry. Rowling was working as a researcher and bilingual secretary in 1990, when she conceived the idea for the Harry Potter series while on a delayed train from Manchester to London, but was not able to complete the first novel in the series until seven years later. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in 1997, followed by six sequels, of which the latest was released in 2007. Rowling was named by Forbes as the world's highest paid author, and at the same time has been awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) from Queen Elizabeth herself, of the United Kingdom.
Poor Without Being Homeless
In late 1993, Rowling was a single mother and lived with her daughter in Scotland, coming out from a very abusive relationship with her husband who had slapped and hit her multiple times. Rowling sought government assistance to get by and got £69 ($103.50) per week from Social Security, and described her economic status at that time as "poor enough without being homeless". According to Rowling, the grinding effects of poverty, her joblessness, her concern for providing for her daughter as a single parent, and a failed marriage, although has caused her a great hardship, has also felt liberating for her to solely focus on writing. An old school friend called Sean Harris, lent her £600 ($900), which allowed her to move to a flat in Leith, where she finally finished Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone two years later.
Saving Her Own Life
Rowling wanted to do a teacher training course, but had decided to complete the book first, out of fear she might not be able to continue writing once her course had started. As she was finishing her book, Rowling wrote in cafes and did secretarial work on the side that brought in £15 or $22.50 per week, unable to earn more than enough to provide for herself and her daughter. After publishing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 1995, a friend gave her money that allowed her to fully come off benefits and enrol full-time in a teaching course in college. Rowling later said that writing the first Harry Potter book had saved her life after contemplating suicide, and that her concerns about love, loss, separation and death, all of which she has experienced due to her mother's death, are reflected in the first book.
No Money in Children's Books
After completing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in June 1995, Christopher Little Literary Agency agreed to represent Rowling to twelve publishers, all of whom rejected her work. Barry Cunningham, who ran the children's literature department at Bloomsbury Publishing told Rowling "You'll never make money out of children's books, Jo", but published her book anyway with an initial print run of 500 copies, after seeing his eight year old daughter finish one chapter and wanting to keep reading. Rowling eventually received a writer's grant by the Scottish Arts Council and used that money to support her childcare costs and aid her in writing the sequel Chamber of Secrets. A few years later, Rowling received news that the US rights for Harry Potter were being auctioned at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, and was surprised when Scholastic Corporation bought the rights for $105,000.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Philosopher's Stone tells the story of Harry Potter, a wizard who lives with his non-magical relatives until the time he was invited to attend Hogwarts School of Withcraft and Wizardry. The plot follows Harry's adventures at Hogwarts with friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, and his attempts to defeat Lord Voldemort, the evil wizard who killed his parents as a child. In 1999, Warner Bros purchased the film rights to the first two Harry Potter novels for a reported $1 million, on the terms that the studio only produced Harry Potter films based on the books she authored. Forbes named Rowling as the first billion-dollar author, who has now an estimated net worth of $1B US dollars, or $820M pounds, with a £4.5 million Georgian house in Kensington, and a £2 million home in Edinburgh.
Comments