"Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home."
Joanne ("J.K.") Rowling, born in 1965, is one of the richest and most influential women alive today (she holds the distinction of being the first novelist to become a billionaire in US dollars solely through writing), and is the author of the
Harry Potter heptalogy. Her published works so far include:
Outside of the Harry Potter story arc, but set in the same
universe, she wrote three books for which all proceeds are donated to charity:
Rowling's biography is quite famous — the Potter-related details of it, at least. For a comprehensive version given by herself,
see her website
. The first idea for Harry Potter "fell into her head" as she was riding on a train, and the idea seized her — but she had nothing to write on and was too shy to ask any stranger. However, early into the writing process on
Philosopher's Stone, Rowling's mother passed away, which "changed her world and Harry's forever", intensifying Harry's feelings of being orphaned. The most famous image of this writer is of a divorced single mother taking her baby to a cafe to write her novel on the back of napkins.
After that, history took its course.
Harry Potter is one of the biggest brands in existence today; in an age of
The Internet,
Video Games and mass Television saturation, Harry made reading cool again. This may be Jo Rowling's most important contribution of all.
J.K. Rowling lives modestly (for her income) in Scotland, with her husband and three children. For the time being, she says, she has taken a break from writing so as to care for her family, though she was recently in a
copyright lawsuit with the creators of the American-based website Harry Potter Lexicon, who attempted to publish their lexicon in book format. This has become a rather famous case in its own right, particularity since Rowling herself even admitted to using the website as a resource for her books, and has led to some
Creator Backlash.
Her next novel,
The Casual Vacancy, was released on 27 September 2012. It is not a
Harry Potter book and is being marketed as her "first novel for adults." Whatever
that means. Her next novel would be aimed at a slightly younger children's demographic than
Harry Potter.
Media portrayals
Associated tropes
- Adam Westing: Mildly in her brief appearance on The Simpsons. To date, this is the only time Rowling has played herself in any fictional context, granted it was just two voice-over lines.
Lisa: Can you tell me what happens at the end of the series?
Rowling: (exasperated) He grows up and marries you. Is that what you want to hear?
Lisa: (dreamily) Yes.
- Aunt Pennybags
- Has donated a buttload to charities. Case in point.
- She's also an outspoken democratic socialist, having lived in poverty.
- Author Avatar: Hermione is based off her when she was younger. Apparently, she split her personality into three parts when designing the Golden Trio, but Hermione is the one with the most aspects of her personality, according to Word Of God.
- Beam Me Up, Scotty!: She never actually wrote the first book on the back of a napkin. When she heard this rumor, she laughed and joked that they'll be saying that she wrote it on teabags next.
- Black Comedy: All her novels are full of this.
- Blunt Yes: At least she apologized.
F.A.Q.: Are you going to kill any more characters?
Rowling: Yes. Sorry.
- Celeb Crush: In Conversations with J. K. Rowling, she mentions that as a kid she had crushes on Dustin Hoffman, after seeing him in Little Big Man, and Davy Jones of The Monkees.
- Creator Breakdown: Early on in the makings of Harry Potter her mother passing away from a years-long battle with multiple sclerosis influenced the more emotionally heavy moments in the story. The theme of death in the last novel was rooted to a lot of Rowlings own feelings about the subject and her faith.
- Deadpan Snarker: It's obvious where many of her characters get it.
- Dye Hard: She's a natural brunette, but she dyes it blonde. The Lifetime movie starring Poppy Montgomery inaccurately portrays her as being blonde through her whole life.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: With her sister Di.
- I Just Write The Thing: Rowling often tells us that she only kills off characters she likes because the plot demands it.
- Lies to Children: Not maliciously, of course, but if the truth would be unnecessarily harsh for small kids. Compare her example on that page (regarding Aberforth and his goats) and the Adam Westing and Blunt Yes examples on this page.
- The Maiden Name Debate: Her name has actually been Joanne Murray since her second marriage in 2001, but she still uses her maiden name in her pen name.
- Mama Bear: She really does not like people taking pictures of her children.
- Moustache de Plume: She actually doesn't even have a middle name. She added the "K" (after her grandmother Kathleen) when Bloomsbury asked her to use her initials.
- Rags to Riches
- Writers Cannot Do Math: As she admits. Mostly its dating inconsistencies which make it hard for fans to construct a timeline of the series. The number of students in Hogwarts is also a point of contention. As are the House points added up at the end of each schoolyear.
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