Born: July 31, 1965, Chipping Sodbury,
near Bristol, England
J. K. Rowling is a British author, who writes about the magical adventures of a boy wizard named Harry Potter. The Harry Potter books dominated bestseller lists in the late 1990s and early 2000s, attracting fans worldwide among children and adults alike.
Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born in Chipping Sodbury, a small town in southern England. Rowling knew she wanted to be a writer as early as six years of age, when she wrote her first story. She graduated from the University of Exeter in England and afterward worked in various jobs while attempting to write fiction for adults.
Rowling moved to Portugal at the age of 26, where she taught English. While there, she married a Portuguese journalist, and they had a daughter in 1993. During this time, she began writing a book about an orphaned boy who lives with his mean-spirited aunt and uncle and does not know that he is actually a wizard with magic powers.
By 1995 Rowling was divorced, and she moved to Edinburgh, Scotland. Unable to pay for childcare, Rowling went on public assistance and continued writing her book, often jotting down passages in cafés while her daughter slept at her side. Her finished manuscript was rejected by a number of publishers before its publication as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in Britain in 1997. This tale of Harry Potter, who learns of his magic abilities at 11 and then attends the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, appeared in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in 1998. A sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was published in Britain in 1998 and a year later in the United States. A third volume, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, appeared in both countries in 1999. By then, Harry Potter’s tale had been translated into nearly 30 languages. A fourth volume, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, reached bestseller lists weeks before its publication in July 2000. A motion-picture adaptation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was scheduled for release in the United States and the United Kingdom in late 2001.
