J.K. Rowling
Other Bios: Hermione Granger • Emma Watson • Rupert Grint • Ron Weasley
Jump Topic: Facts • Biography • Stats • Contact • Charities • Quotes
Quick Facts
Full Name: Joanna Murray (Rowling)
Bithplace: Gloucestershire, England
Birthdate: July 31st, 1965
Siblings: Dianne or Di (1967)
Children: Jessica (1994), David (1993),
and Mackenzie (2005)
Height: 5'5
Hair: Dirty Blonde
Biography
Joanne Rowling was born in Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol in England to Anne and Peter Rowling. Jo has one sister, Dianne, who is two years younger.
In Dec.1990 her mother passed away of multiple sclerosis. Jo left for Portugal nine months after her mother's death to teach English as a foreign language. She met her first husband there and they had a daughter, Jessica in 1993. The marriage didn't work out, and Jo moved back to England with her daughter around the Christmas of 1994.
The idea of "the boy who lived" first came to Jo while waiting on a train in 1990 just before her mother died. She had to keep dreaming and collecting thoughts in her head for a few hours before she finally got hold of a pen that worked!Her opinions on how harry should feel about his parents dying became allot deeper after the death of her own mother.It took a year and 12 turndowns before Jo finally got Bloomsbury Publishing to print 1000 copies of Philosopher's Stone (which took 6 years to write) in June of 1997. Her given name at birth was simply Joanne. When Bloomsbury asked her to use two initials rather than her first name (afraid that the target group of young boys wouldn't buy the first Harry Potter book if they knew the author was female), she chose K which was her grandmother Kathleen 's initial. In fall 1998, Scholastic published Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the US, but changed the title to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Jo later said that she regretted not fighting the decision, but at that time she wasn't in the position to do so.
Jo married Dr. Neil Murray in December 2001. They had their first child together in 2003, son David Gordon, and in 2005, daughter Mackenzie Jean.
Jo finished the 7th and last Potter book Deathly Hallows early in 2007 and it was released July 21st 2007 and is still growing in popularity.
Jo has also recently written The Tales of Beedle and the Bard , which was the book given to Hermione by Dumbeldore in Deathly Hallows .Only 7 copies of the book were published and only one may be bought! The other 6 were given away as gifts. The 7th copy is to be auctioned to raise money for her charity, The Children's Voice.
Jo has won several awards and has been given many titles since the success of the first book and the Warner Bro's Movie adaptions. She remains a pleasant and witty person amongst all the fame and has been named the author of our time. We're all looking forward to whatever captures her pen next!
Other Statistics
Color: Green
Bands: The Smiths (and in her youth The Clash)
Movies: The Fabulous Baker Boys and the Monty Python Movies
Books: (in adulthood) Any books by Jane Austen or Roddy Doyle (in childhood) Ballet Shoes By: Noel Streatfield, The Little White Horse By: Elizabeth Goudge, and Manx Mouse By: Paul Gallico.
School Subject: English and Foreign Languages
Contacting JK
JK can be reached at the following address:
J. K. Rowling
c/o Scholastic Inc.
555 Broadway
New York, NY 10012
or
J. K. Rowling
c/o Bloomsbury Publishing
38 Soho Square
London
W1V 5DF
UK
Charities She Supports
Jo supports several charities and organizations. Below are but a few she has been known to support.
Amnesty International London
www.amnesty.org.uk
The purpose of Amnesty International is to protect people wherever justice, fairness, freedom and truth are denied.
Lumos
http://www.lumos.org.uk/
J.K. Rowling co-founded this charity with Baroness Emma Nicholson MEP. The purpose of the charity is to end the systematic institutionalisation of children across Europe. Lumos wants to see children living in safe, caring environments. They believe this should be the case for all children, whether they’re disabled, from an ethnic minority or from an impoverished background.
Comic Relief
http://www.comicrelief.com/
Since 1985, Comic Relief has inspired the nation to have a laugh while raising cash to help change lives. It's vision is a just world, free from poverty.
Gingerbread
www.gingerbread.org.uk
Gingerbread is the charity which works nationally and locally, for and with single parent families, to improve their lives. Gingerbread achieves change by championing their voices and needs and providing support services.
Multiple Sclerosis Society Scotland
www.mssocietyscotland.org.uk
The Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society Scotland is Scotland's largest charity for people affected by multiple sclerosis. Around 10,500 people in Scotland have MS. The mission: 'To enable everyone affected by MS to live life to their full potential and secure the care and support they need, until we ultimately find a cure.'
Volant Charitable Trust
www.volanttrust.com
This Trust was set up by J. K. Rowling to support charitable causes.The Trust has two broad areas of funding. Research into the causes, treatment and possible cures of Multiple Sclerosis and also to help Charities and projects, whether national or community-based, at home or abroad, that alleviate social deprivation, with a particular emphasis on women’s and children’s issues.
Quotes
Words of wisdom from the muse herself!
I just write what I wanted to write. I write what amuses me. It's totally for myself.
Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices that had dramatic consequences.
I sat and thought for four (delayed train) hours, and all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard became more and more real to me.
Writing for me is a kind of compulsion, so I don't think anyone could have
made me do it, or prevented me from doing it.
Probably the very best thing my earnings have given me is absense of worry. I have not forgotten what it feels like to worry whether you'll have enough to pay the bills. Not to have to think about that any more is the biggest luxury in the world.
I imagined being a famous writer would be like being Jane Austen, being able to sit at home in the parsonage and your books would be very famous.
There is a lot of comedy in magic, and magic going wrong, and also it is a dramatic subject.
Ever since Rabbit and Miss Bee, I have wanted to be a writer, though I rarely told anyone so. I was afraid they’d tell me I didn’t have a hope.
Goblet of Fire, I was very unhappy towards the end of writing Goblet, and at the point where I realized I was fantasizing that I would break an arm and therefore not be able to. I really mean this. I mean I was just a little way away from actually thinking ‘How can I break my arm so I can tell my publishers that I can't physically do it?’
Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve. I was determined to try. I was determined to try because, frankly, my life was such a mess at this point, what – what was the worst that could happen? Everyone turn me down? Big deal.
Unfortunately, I am one of the most disorganized people in the world.
I am an extraordinarily lucky person, doing what I love best in the world. I'm sure that I will always be a writer.
Resources include : IMDB.com, JKRowling.com, and MuggleNet
