J K Rowling, British author and philanthropist
The wealthiest author today was once living her life on welfare benefits. Depressed, unemployed, and a single mother, she had a very difficult life, struggling to make ends meet. That was when she wrote her masterpiece. Today everyone knows about Harry Potter, the boy of the prophecy. It is one of the books that must have been sold the most after the Bible. In this article, we will learn about the success story of J K Rowling, the British author and philanthropist.
Joanne Rowling was born on July 31, 1968, to Peter James Rowling and Anne Volant Rowling. Rowling belongs to a middle-class family who worked hard to provide for their family. She belonged to a family that was fond of reading. Her father would read to them The Wind in the Willows, and her mother would read them Richard Scarry’s books. At the age of 6, J K Rowling decided to write her first story, called Rabbit. Her life started becoming difficult after her mother’s diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. This somewhere strained her relationship with her father. Her first rejection happened when she applied for Oxford University in 1982 and was rejected.
After her graduation, she started working as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International London. Once, while sitting in the Manchester station, she had the idea of Harry Potter.
The death of her mother in 1990 caused a huge delay for her in writing Harry Potter. But she got over the pain of the loss of her mother. She decided to travel to Portugal and start teaching English. Eventually, she married Jorge Arantes, but this relationship was already in trouble. By July 19, 1993, her daughter Jessica was born, but during this time, her marriage turned catastrophic for her. She suffered domestic abuse. During this marriage. She eventually left Portugal with her daughter to move back with her sister. By this time she had managed to complete three chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. She was now living on government assistance without a job and raising her daughter. To not be a burden on her sister, she decided to move into a flat, which was ridden with a mouse. She later moved into a good house with the help of a friend, Sean Harris.
Joanne is the one tough cookie to be cracked. Her manuscript was rejected by so many publishers, yet she was determined. Eventually, Nigel Newton, who was the incharge of Bloomsbury at the time, gave those three chapters to his young daughter to read, and she loved it and wanted to know more. Because of this, they eventually published a small batch of thousand, which was highly loved by the readers. Philosopher Stone became the New York best seller for that month.
She eventually went on to write many other books and rose to fame as one of the most cherished authors. Harry Potter became a cult classic, and today it has millions of fans.
By 2022, her net worth was $1 billion. She was then considered to be one of the richest authors and was on the list of the top five self-made female billionaires at that period. She was easily earning nearly $50 million per year for her various endeavors. J K Rowling is extremely involved in charitable organizations that help women and children. She founded a charity known as Lumos in 2005 that focused on kids. She is a strong advocate for women’s rights. She is considered to be a generous philanthropist who has donated millions for the causes that she believes. Her books have won various awards, from children’s book of the year to British book awards. She was appointed as the officer of the order of the British Empire in 2000. Her book Harry Potter is one of the most successful fantasy stories out there that has been read and appreciated worldwide.
JK Rowling’s journey teaches us a lot. Today, this British author has several successful novels, out of which Harry Potter, a fantasy novel of seven parts, has sold over 600 million copies. This particular novel has been translated into 84 languages and has been made into popular video games and films. Some of her notable works apart from the Harry Potter series are The Cuckoo’s Calling, The Running Grave, The Ink Black Heart, The Troubled Blood, The Christmas Pig, The Career of Evil, etc. She is considered the highest-paid author by Forbes. When we look into her life, we can see her struggles and determination to never give up. Being a single mother with severe depression and being relatively poor did not stop her from her writing goals. Rowling was inspired by her family and her teacher to be a writer, and here today she is one of the most well known and well loved authors of all time. J K Rowling is the successful British author and philanthropist who was able to turn all her rejection into a literary phenomenon.
