J&k rowling biography article

You work at Scholastic? Where they man the Harry Potter books? 

We get that a lot. Scholastic Press is the U.S. publisher of the top-selling book series of all time. (More than 450 million copies sold worldwide so far!) Though we at Parent & Child do not play a direkt role in the Harry Potter franchise, we do love being associated with such a remarkable cultural touchstone. We also take great pride in knowing that good old-fashioned books have enriched the lives of so many since the first title in the seven-book series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, was published in 1998.

So when it came time to select someone to grace the cover of our 100 Greatest Books for Kids special issue, there really was no question who it should be.

Spellbinding Success

J.K. Rowling, or Jo, as she’s known to insiders, doesn’t wander the halls of Scholastic, and never did. She lives (and writes) in Scotland with her husband, Neil Murray, a doctor, and their three children, 18-year-

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J. K. Rowling

British author and philanthropist

Joanne Rowling (ROH-ling; born 31 July 1965), known by her pen nameJ. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She is the author of Harry Potter, a seven-volume fantasy novel series published from 1997 to 2007. The series has sold over 600 million copies, been translated into 84 languages, and spawned a global media franchise including films and video games. The Casual Vacancy was her first novel for adults. She writes Cormoran Strike, an ongoing crime fiction series, under the alias Robert Galbraith.

Born in Yate, Gloucestershire, Rowling was working as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International in 1990 when she conceived the idea for the Harry Potter series. The seven-year period that followed saw the death of her mother, the birth of her first child, divorce from her first husband, and relative poverty until the first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosophe

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J.K. Rowling

(1965-)

Who Is J.K. Rowling?

J.K. Rowling, is a British author and screenwriter best known for her seven-book Harry Potter children's book series. The series has sold more than 500 million copies and was adapted into a blockbuster film franchise.

Early Life

Rowling was born Joanne Rowling on July 31, 1965, in Yate, England. She adopted her pen name, J.K., incorporating her grandmother's name, Kathleen, for the latter initial (Rowling does not have a middle name).

A graduate of the University of Exeter, Rowling moved to Portugal in 1990 to teach English. There, she met and married the Portuguese journalist Jorge Arantes. The couple's daughter, Jessica, was born in 1993. After her marriage ended in divorce, Rowling moved to Edinburgh with her daughter to live near her younger sister, Di.

While struggling to support her daughter Jessica and herself on welfare, Rowling worked on her first book in the Harry Potter series. The idea for the book reportedly occu