Biography of Joanne Kathleen Rowling (J. K. Rowling) | Author of Harry Potter and perhaps the most popular writer in the world.

The author of Harry Potter spent seventeen years of his life to write seven books of a carefully conceived story.

Joanne Kathleen Rowling is perhaps the most popular writer in the world. His case has acquired the aura of a phenomenon of contemporary popular culture, and many critics consider it a renewal of the importance of the book for their influence on audiences of all ages. Each of the Harry Potter novels, translated into more than fifty languages, became best seller from the moment of its publication. The following series of photographs illustrates the path of the author.

Early writer

With Neil Murray

The difficult years

He wrote in cafes

A planned saga

The philosopher's stone

The British author Joanne Kathleen Rowling has become famous for his series of novels dedicated to the adventures of Harry Potter, who has become one of the greatest literary phenomena of history. The adventures of the child hero Harry Potter, orphan with magical powers able to escape at will to a fantasy world, managed to beat all records of sales in the literature of the genre, although many critics were reluctant to pigeonhole the Rowling books as stories for children, as it was the case with the famous Tom Sawyer Mark Twain. The person who has made it possible that many children and teenagers prefer to read a book to spend hours dead in front of the TV is a shy British who wanted to write seven deliveries of series, which are equivalent to courses which the protagonist must overcome in the school of witchcraft and wizardry attending when it escapes from the horrible everyday reality in their petty uncles House.

J. K. Rowling

According to some literary critics, the author managed to create an unsettling atmosphere attractive in the eyes of readers of varying condition and age, from recognizable influences in the books of British writers such as Enid Blyton, Richmal Crompton or the Danish Roäl Dahl in his novels. But, paradoxically, she herself stated that she never intended to write fantasy and that the idea was you from their own childhood memories. Virtually unknown and with economic problems in the first half of the 1990s, when I lived a modest pension as unemployed, has become a woman rich and popular in Europe, and especially in the United States, where multitudes of children accompanied by their parents support long lines at bookstores to claim the latest adventures of the little Wizard.

The children nurtured Potter

Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 in the small British town of Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol, in the South-West of the island. Due to the work of his father, Peter, the Rolls-Royce company engineer married with Anne, a Scottish with French roots, his family had to change residence on several occasions during the childhood of small Jo and Di, affectionate appellations family of the future novelist and her younger sister, Dianne.

After a brief stay in a yacht, they moved to Winterbourne, always without straying from the suburbs of Bristol, environment in which were forged early memories of the imaginative girl who spent hours sharing dreams and fantasies with her sister. Reader and writer early, enthusiastic amateur devouring novels for adults, six years devised a rabbit that had the honor of being his first hero in a story titled Rabbit.

In Winterbourne girls made friends among the neighborhood; one of them was called Ian Potter. Amateur to adopt foreign names for the characters and places in her novels, many years after Joanne borrowed that surname to give life to his famous character. When Jo I was nine years old, the Rowling made reality his dream and moved to a rural area of the County of Gwent called Forest of Dean, population Center close to Chepstow, where the two sisters discovered the pleasure of playing in British green fields close to the River Wye.

Daniel Radcliffe has played the role of Harry Potter
in all the movies, grow with the character

But the happy change had its counterpart in the problems in the new school which was attended by the Rowling and ended by becoming a torment for the majority of the sisters, who would remember for years his hated teacher Mrs. Morgan, to the point of transferring it to his novels and make that embody one of its malevolent characters.

The freckled, studious and quite unsafe «gafotas» Joanne, according to its own definition, grew up and left Tutshill primary school to Wyedean, where became interested in languages. Applied student, soon also highlighted their penchant to tell stories to a small circle of friends, who listened carefully the narration of long stories in the leisure times. During his adolescence he wrote much, but, with the exception of some funny stories, never dared to show their manuscripts to anyone.

Difficult years

Once at Wyedean, Joanne K. Rowling enrolled at the University of Exeter, where, following the parental advice, studied French in order to then find a good job as a bilingual Secretary. With titles still gleaming French language and literature, he moved to Amnesty International Headquarters in London to carry out a research work on violations of human rights in French-speaking Africa.

After this brief period of training he started working as a Secretary, but he soon discovered the order and routine wouldn't be with her. Several frustrating experiences in different companies, together with the sad demise of his mother, sick with multiple sclerosis led her to leave it all at the age of twenty-six, and to leave the country with the intention of teaching English abroad.

In Lisbon he enjoyed teaching their native language to Portuguese students and had enough time to write, his true vocation. There he met and fell in love with Jorge Arantes, a Portuguese television journalist with whom he married in October 1992 and with who, a year later, had a daughter which he called Jessica "in honor of a British Brigade member who had fought in the Spanish civil war", said in an interview. Despite the happy event, the marriage did not prosper and soon ended in divorce.

Mother of a little girl alone in a foreign country, in 1996, Joanne decided to return to Britain and settled in the Scottish city of Edinburgh, near his sister Dianne, where he arrived with the firm intention to finish and publish a novel about a such Harry Potter, child with magical powers character, whose wanderings had imagined quite some time ago during a never-ending journey by train between Manchester and London.

Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone, first installment
of the series, it was made into a film in 2001

The tenacious French teacher spent many evenings of your life writing 'for itself' in a warm cup of coffee next to a small apartment without heating in which malvivía with her daughter. Finally, the indefatigable novelist managed a grant from the Scottish Arts Council, which enabled him to conclude, five years after started, which then was his life's work: Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone.

Success

He ran unsuccessfully with the copy typed by her own publishing prestige of Penguin and Harper Collins, until in 1997 he finally got to the prestigious British firm Bloomsbury published the book. A few months later, Scholastic Press bought the novel for United States rights, for a sum exceeding 14.5 billion pesetas, a very important figure for a children's book. Rowling began to be popular in his own country, and for months was widely surpassed by the situation, without being able to write a single line.

On the verge of finishing the second book in the series, it entered a critical phase and came to think that I was writing «garbage», as he confessed later in an interview. Nothing used to manage such sums of money or to the pressure of the media, Joanne blocked is and quickly adapt to the new situation, to the point of being forced to change their simple lifestyle. He had to stop writing in the same coffee due to harassment from fans and curious, they became the local place of pilgrimage, and adopted a defensive posture against the intrusions into his private life. Then decided to definitely leave classes to devote himself entirely to what had always craved: write.

The publication of his first book - signed with the initial J. K. Council of publishers, leery of that the children don't want to read a book about a boy written by a woman - was a magical turn in his life. The reality of the extraordinary success widely exceeded all expectations of the British and American publishers who had published it. Subsequent editions of the following books of the series (Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets and prisoner of Azkaban) reaffirmed the initial success and resulted in a literary phenomenon, to which the press dubbed "pottermania".

With her second husband Neil Murray

Decorated with the title of officer of the British Empire and converted into the person who occupies the third place by volume gains in their country, according to a list of the prestigious magazine Forbes, Joanne tried to maintain against wind and tide their discreet lifestyle. Every morning followed bringing his daughter to school whenever the promotional tours of his novels would allow it, and attempted to write the remaining Harry Potter books in other cafes of Edinburgh, away from the harassment of journalists.

Chronology of j. k. Rowling

1965	Born in the town of Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol.
1988	He finishes his studies of language and French literature at the University of Exeter.
1990	Conceived the character of Harry Potter in a trip by train from Manchester to London. Death of his mother.
1992	Teaching English in a Lisbon language school and married Jorge Arantes, Portuguese television journalist, who has his daughter Jessica. The couple divorced the following year.
1994	He returned to Edinburgh with her daughter. It passes economic difficulties and suffers from strong depressions.
1997	He completed and published Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone, the first book of the series, which obtained a great success.
1998	It publishes Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets.
1999	It publishes Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban.
2000	He published Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire. You get remarried with Neil Murray.
2001	Opens the film Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone, based on the first installment of the series. The following deliverables will be also carried film in successive years, with blockbuster.
2003	He received the Prince of Asturias Concord award. He published Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix. His son David Gordon was born.
2004	It appears for the first time in the Forbes list as the richest in the world writer.
2005	He published Harry Potter and the half-blood Prince. His daughter Mackenzie Jean is born.
2007	It publishes Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the delivery that closes the series.

J. K. Rowling and Harry Potter

Rowling imagined Harry Potter for the first time in 1990 and structured the adventures of its hero in seven possible books, each of which would include a year of teenage life of the sorcerer's apprentice. As it is traditional in the English classical literature, his character would have to confront a family environment adverse (in this case to his hated aunt and uncle) and the forces of evil, and would be the magic the way to overcome the dark forces.

J. K. Rowling

The plots of the Potter series are avatars and fantastic surprises that happen in everyday life, balance that pleases readers. Harry Potter, representing good, receives the confirmation that he possesses magical powers and must use them to finish with a character representing evil, Voldemort.

In the Rowling books also stands out the invention of memorable characters like Ron Weasley, a skilled magician from poor family; Albus Dumbledore, the head of the Hogwarts School and the most powerful living Wizard; Flitwick, tiny and old sorcerer; Hooch, Professor of flight; Severus Snape, fond of black magic and head of Slytherin House, where they come from so terrible as Voldemort magicians; the gnomes bankers, dangerous beings who guard the treasures stored in Gringotts, hundreds of kilometres away in the heart of London; Argus Filch, warden of the College and the students hate, and a long etcetera.

Another of the peculiarities of his books is to create a memorable and picturesque topology with places as the forbidden forest, site forbidden for students of Hogwarts, then live there magical creatures; Gringotts wizarding Bank, the Bank of the Magi; Hogsmeade, village entirely magical; the Ministry of magic; and Platform 9 and 3/4, where they exit the Hogwarts Express.

The parents of Harry Potter, also magicians, died in a fatal standoff against Voldemort, the dark and powerful sorcerer. Left an orphan, Harry was picked up at his uncles, a mediocre class family house average maltreating him. At the age of eleven, revealed his membership to the wizarding world and it is carried to Hogwarts, an unusual highschool in a world parallel to the ordinary where you will find real friends and teachers, but also where you have to face powerful and terrible enemies.

In the first installment of the series, Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone, Harry Potter, newly admitted to the boarding school of Hogwarts, strikes up a friendship with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The Center is part of the Gryffindor House, which, as it ensures the legend, moran only the brave. But not all the characters that surround him are friends, as after the emergence of Draco Malfoy, who is pleased to make life impossible for the poor Harry. Soon will be scene also the powerful Wizard Lord Voldemort, the wickedest Wizard of all time, which tries to put an end to the life of the protagonist after having killed their parents. But Harry Potter warns that its dangerous enemy is now much more weakened, so it does not hesitate to confront openly against it.

Stills from Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets (2002)

In the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets, Ron Weasley and his twin brothers Fred and George go to Privet Drive, where Harry Potter is going vacation, to rescue him so frightening place and bring it to your home. Back to the boarding school of Hogwarts, Harry and Ron are numerous difficulties to reach the school, because, among other reasons, they miss the train that should lead them there.

When they finally get to the Center where both are internal, they are with that Hogwarts is threatened by a terrible monster that round down the aisle and tries to annihilate "mudblood" students, i.e. those belonging to the lineage of muggles. Terror has become widespread even among teachers, that have decreed desperate security measures to preserve the lives of the students. But Harry Potter will who is responsible for deal with the horrible monster and, incidentally, discover the mysteries of the disquieting Chamber of secrets.

In the third part, titled Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban, Sirius Black, a ruthless killer endowed with magical powers, has just run away from the magical prison of Azkaban, in which had been indicted for having killed twelve muggles and a magician that he was schoolmate yours, which wiped out with a single stroke of magic wand.

In the solemn Ministry of magic, magicians who manage it have had to serve numerous spells to Muggle lost the memory of what happened and would accept that his death was due to an accidental gas explosion. By Hogwarts runs the rumor that Sirius Black has gone mad as hell and just wants to put an end to the life of Harry Potter, so the Ministry of magic sends to boarding school to a delegation of guards of Azkaban (famous Dementors), with the mission to Sirius. But Dementors cause a very negative impact on the school, since only feed on the joy and positive energy of the people, by what the sadness and anguish seize the inhabitants of Hogwarts.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire, fourth piece in the series, Ron is furious and jealous because his friend Hermione, which he loves in secret, is in love with a new kid, Victor Krum. For its part, the good Harry Potter has also fallen under the tyranny of love, and baby winds by the young Cho Chang, newly named captain of the Ravenclaw quidditch team.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire (2005)

Driven by this passion, gets his brother mayor Bill, Ron, and Hermione to accompany him to see play equipment of Cho Chang, who participates in the world quidditch held that year. Everything takes place in apparent calm until, as soon as end of the world, appears in the sky a terrible sign that scares those who contemplate it: the unmistakable mark of Lord Voldemort.

The fifth book, Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix, begins after a boring holiday with his uncles, during which Harry Potter has not had any news of his friends Ron and Hermione, Harry Potter is going to start his fifth year at the boarding school of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry that discovered his powers. But in Privet Drive is attacked by Dementors, the guards of the prison of Azkaban, Sirius Black was imprisoned.

Harry Potter and the half-blood Prince tells the sixth course of Harry Potter at Hogwarts; Lord Voldemort becomes an even more serious threat to the community of magical and muggle. Harry see details of the past of the powerful evil wizard and a potions book that can perhaps help you to combat many of the terrible dangers that threaten the school; the author of annotations contained in the book is the mysterious "Prince".

The success of Harry Potter so much in expertise of Rowling for creating a character who fills with adventurous and fantastic expectations child reader as in its ability to offer a magical story that recovers the world missed childhood, plagued by symbols which, little by little, allowed to go assimilating the complex universe of the largest adult.

The quality of the recreated characters, the details of that prodigious world as close to the real but much more stimulating, intrigue and resolution of the adventures have made Harry Potter a best-seller of the literature world and inspired the phenomenon of the "pottermania". In 2004, the successive deliveries had been translated into more than forty languages and more than fifty million copies had been sold. The first two books were brought to film by Chris Columbus and the third by the Mexican Alfonso Cuarón.

Extracted from the website: Biografías y Vidas