Joanne Rowling has become known all over the world under the pen name JK Rowling for her record-breaking Harry Potter novels and the subsequent films that make Harry Potter the third-most successful movie series of all-time.
Born in 1965, JK Rowling attended England’s University of Exeter, where she studied French, and later worked for human rights organisation Amnesty International in London and as a language instructor in Portugal. The idea for the celebrated Harry Potter book series came to Rowling when she was riding a train from Manchester, England, to London in 1990. She began writing the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, that night.
Rowling finished the book while living in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she struggled financially as a single mother, battling depression, and living off state benefits. Her completed manuscript was turned down by a number of publishers before she got a book deal with Bloomsbury Publishing in August 1996.
The first book debuted in Great Britain in 1997, and was released in the United States the following year and subsequently renamed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Children and adults alike were captivated by the story of the bespectacled boy wizard Harry, his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, their adventures at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Harry’s struggles against his enemy, the evil Lord Voldemort.
On 16 November, 2001, the first Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, opened in America and was a huge box office success, earning a worldwide total of $974 755 371. It was directed by Chris Columbus (Home Alone, and Mrs Doubtfire) and starred British child actor Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Rupert Grint as Ron and Emma Watson in the role of Hermione.
Rowling would write a further seven books in the Harry Potter series, the eighth coming in the form of a play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
There would also be another seven books in Rowling’s JK Rowling’s Wizarding World series that included the Fantastic Beasts books. Overall, Rowling’s wizarding series books have sold over 500 million copies worldwide, making it the most successful book series of all time, and have even been translated into as many as 65 languages over the years.
While the books are the most successful series, the movie series is not far off, as it is the third-most successful movie series of all time ($8,537 billion), behind only Star Wars ($9,097 billion) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe ($14,694 billion).
Rowling also became the first billionaire author in history, but lost her billionaire title after she donated the majority of her income to charity.
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