J.K. Rowling: Biography, Quotes, and List of Books

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Brief Biography of J.K. Rowling

Joanne “Jo” Rowling, better known as J. K. Rowling is a British author best known as the creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series. Born in 1966, in Chipping Sodbury, a small town in Bristol, England located a few miles south of Dursley, hometown to her fictional protagonist Harry Potter. It is interesting to note that Ms. Rowling claims that she has actually been writing since she was 5 or 6 years old. Her first story, called Rabbit, was filled with interesting characters, such as a large bee called Miss Bee. Rabbits played a large part in her early tales, for Rowling and her sister badly wanted a rabbit. Her first story, at age five or six, involved a rabbit named, quite logically, Rabbit, who got the measles and visited his friend, a giant bee named Miss Bee. Rowling said in J. K. Rowling: The Wizard Behind Harry Potter, “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.”

She became something of a publishing phenomenon selling more than a 400 million books from her series of novels about a British boy wizard named Harry Potter. The Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, and been the basis for a popular series of films, in which Rowling had overall approval on the scripts as well as maintaining creative control by serving as a producer on the final installment.

Awards Won By J.K. Rowling

1997: Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, Gold Award for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

1998: Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, Gold Award for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

1998: British Children’s Book of the Year, winner Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

1999: Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, Gold Award for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

1999: British Children’s Book of the Year, winner Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

1999: Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year, winner Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

2000: British Book Awards, Author of the Year.

2000: Order of the British Empire, Officer.

2003: Premio Príncipe de Asturias, Concord.

2006: British Book of the Year, winner for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

2007: Blue Peter Badge, Gold.

2008: British Book Awards, Outstanding Achievement.

2009: Légion d’honneur, presented by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

2010: Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award, inaugural award winner.

J.K. Rowling Quotes

• “Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.”
• “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all those who live without love.”
• “If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
• “Percy wouldn’t notice a joke if it danced naked in front of him wearing one of Dobby’s hats.”
• “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”
• “As Hagrid had said, what would come would come and he would have to meet it when it did.”
• “A child’s voice, however honest and true, is meaningless to those who’ve forgotten how to listen. – Dumbledore”
• “He can run faster than Severus Snape confronted with shampoo.”

List of Books, Short Stories and Articles By J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter series

1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (26 June 1997)
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2 July 1998)
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (8 July 1999)
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (8 July 2000)
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (21 June 2003)
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (16 July 2005)
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (21 July 2007)
8. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2001)
9. Quidditch Through the Ages (2001)
10. The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2008)

Short Stories By J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter prequel (July 2008)

Articles By J.K. Rowling

“The First It Girl: J.K. Rowling reviews Decca: the Letters of Jessica Mitford ed by Peter Y Sussman”, The Daily Telegraph 26 July 2006

Introduction to “Ending Child Poverty” in Moving Britain Forward. Selected Speeches 1997–2006 by Gordon Brown, Bloomsbury (2006)

Foreword to the anthology Magic, edited by Gil McNeil and Sarah Brown, Bloomsbury (2002)

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination, J.K. Rowling, Harvard Magazine, 5 June 2008

Foreword to “Harry, A History”, written by Melissa Anelli, Pocket (2008)

Gordon Brown – The 2009 Time 100 J.K Rowling, Time Magazine, 30 April 2009

The single mother’s manifesto J.K Rowling, The Times, 14 April 2010

Resources about J.K. Rowling

Information and Biography about J.K. Rowling.

Official website of J.K. Rowling

Resource by T.Price

I am a mom of 2 boys who loves to spend time with them doing fun things outdoors. In my spare time I have my own things I enjoy doing such as gardening, reading old books, and being a closet history buff.

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