Today J.K. Rowling is worth 910 million dollars due to her successful literary career. This extremely large net worth makes her the wealthiest author in the world. Her biggest source of wealth is, of course, the Harry Potter books and movies. Even though everyone associates J.K. Rowling with the Harry Potter books, there is much more to her than that. She is a modern day rags to riches story, and a source of great inspiration of many young people. Harry Potter is J.K. Rowling’s biggest accomplishment, but there is a story behind the women who wrote those books that is as magical as they are.
Most people know J.K., Joanne, Rowling as the author of the bestselling Harry Potter books, but she is much more to her than just Harry Potter. She was born “in Yate, England, on July 31st 1965” (J.K. Rowling). After graduating from Exeter University to Portugal to English in 1990, while there she met her first husband and they soon married and had a daughter, Jessica. After the marriage ended “Rowling moved to Edinburgh with her daughter to live near her younger sister, Di” (J.K. Rowling). Soon after, Rowling was struggling to support herself and her daughter on welfare. The idea for Harry Potter came to Rowling “while she was traveling on a train from Manchester to London in 1990,” and after selling the book idea for $4000 Rowling soon became a huge success.
After getting her first book, Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone published Rowling became a star author almost instantly; she had struck an enchanted gold mine. “By the summer of 2000, the first three Harry Potter books; Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban had earned approximately $480 million in three years, with over 35 million copies in print in 35 languages” (JK Rowling Biogrpahy). Rowling’s books quickly topped best seller lists and were turned into movies with the first “earning an estimated 93.5 million,” at the box office (JK Rowling Biography). All seven of the books have now been turned into movies. She is now one of the richest women in Britain and is the world’s richest author.
Although the Harry Potter saga has come to an end, J.K. Rowling is not only still writing, but giving back as much as she can. Since completeing Harry Potter J.K. Rowling has written a new book called "The Causal Vacancy" and while writing Harry Potter she published a few “comic relief,” books like “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through The Ages” (Biography J.K. Rowling). She also wrote another comic relief book called “The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which appeared in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” (Biography J.K. Rowling). Rowling also gives back to multiple charities as often as she can. For years Rowling “was an Ambassador of One Parent Families — now called Gingerbread — a charity working with lone parents and their children. In 2007, she took an honorary position as President for the charity” (Biography J.K. Rowling). In 2005 she helped co-find “the Children's High Level Group, which aims to make life better for young people in care in Eastern Europe and ultimately all over the world” (Biography J.K. Rowling).
Bibliography
"J.K. Rowling." biography.com. A E Networks, n.d. Web. 8 May 2013. http://www.biography.com/people/jk-rowling-40998?page=2
"JK Rowling Biography." mugglnet.com. mugglenet.com, n.d. Web. 8 May 2013. http://www.mugglenet.com/jkr/biography.shtml
"Biography J.K. Rowling." Scholastic.com. scholastic, n.d. Web. 9 May 2013. <http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/contributor/j-k-rowling>.
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