Rowling << ROH lihng, >> J. K. (1965-…), a British children’s author, became an international sensation with her series of fantasy novels about schoolboy Harry Potter. The series begins as Harry, an orphan, turns 11 years old and discovers he is a wizard. The stories center on his adventures as a student at the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The seven novels in the series follow Harry through seven years. The character ages one year in each book. The first novel in the series was published in the United Kingdom in 1997 as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. It was published in a slightly revised version in the United States in 1998 as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The other six novels are Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007). Several popular movies have been made from the series.
Rowling published two short books in 2001 as Harry’s schoolbooks and not as continuations of the series. They are Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages. Fantastic Beasts was made into a movie that was released in 2016. It follows the adventures of writer Newt Scamander in New York’s secret community of witches and wizards 70 years before Harry Potter reads his book in school. A sequel, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, was released in 2018, along with a book version of the original screenplay. Also in 2016, Rowling released Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II, a play and a script book of the play. The story is set 19 years after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It follows Harry, now a Ministry of Magic employee, and his younger son Albus Severus Potter.
In 2016, Rowling released the “Pottermore Presents” trio of e-books set in the wizarding world of Harry Potter. The series began with Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists. In 2019, the release of a four-book series of e-books called “Harry Potter: A Journey Through…” began with Harry Potter: A Journey Through Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts. The books are based on the subjects Harry studied at Hogwarts.
Rowling wrote and illustrated The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2008), a book of fairy tales from the world of Harry Potter. In 2020, she published a fairy tale novel called The Ickabog, first on a website of the same name, and later in book form. Rowling originally wrote the story, about the Kingdom of Cornucopia and its king, Fred the Fearless, for her children in the early 2000’s. In 2021, she published another children’s novel, The Christmas Pig.
Rowling has also written works for adults. She wrote the novel The Casual Vacancy (2012). In 2013, she began the “Cormoran Strike” series of detective stories, which she published under the name Robert Galbraith. The internationally best-selling series began with The Cuckoo’s Calling.
Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born on July 31, 1965, in Chipping Sodbury, northeast of Bristol, England. She attended Exeter University, where she studied French. Rowling spent several years in Portugal teaching English and then returned to the United Kingdom, settling in Edinburgh, Scotland. Rowling said that she conceived the idea for the Harry Potter characters while sitting on a train in London in 1990. She completed the first novel while she was an unemployed teacher in Edinburgh.
See also Potter, Harry.
