J.K. Rowling’s rise to fame with Harry Potter
- posted: 10 July 2007
- scrollarts@byui.edu
For those who have followed Harry’s journey from his broom- closet days to his adventures at Hogwarts, the equally interesting journey of J.K. Rowling may not be something new. However, for those who have more recently joined the movement, the impressing story of J.K. Rowling’s rise to fame may be an inspiring tale.
Joanne Rowling was born on the outskirts of Bristol, England, in 1965; two years later, her sister, Di, was born, an event to which Rowling attributes her earliest memory.
While attending primary school, Rowling spent her time at pottery-making, drawing and story-writing.
At the age of 9, Rowling and her family moved to her final childhood home, a quaint country cottage in the small village of Tutshill.
Around this time, Rowling’s favorite grandparent, Kathleen, died. Rowling would later take the name Kathleen upon herself to create the K. initial in her name.
At age 11, in her secondary school years, Rowling met Sean Harris, the owner of a Ford Anglia and to whom The Chamber of Secrets was dedicated.
During Rowling’s teenage years, her mother contracted Multiple Sclerosis. “The worst thing that happened during my teenage years was my mother becoming ill,” said Rowling in her on-line biography, which can be found on her official Web site, www.jkrowling.com.
In 1983, Rowling graduated from school and went on to study French at the University of Exeter. As part of her studies, Rowling spent a year abroad in Paris.
After graduation, Rowling moved to London, where she worked various jobs: her longest stint with Amnesty International.
In 1990, while on a train traveling back to London, the idea for Harry Potter “simply fell into my head,” Rowling said.
Rowling had to borrow a pen to begin writing down her ideas for the black-haired boy who didn’t know he was a wizard. That very night, Rowling began writing Philosopher’s Stone, “although the first few pages bear no resemblance at all to anything in the finished book,” Rowling said.
Later that year, Rowling moved to Manchester, and in December 1990, her mother died.
Rowling said that her mother’s death made the death of Harry’s parents much more real to her.
Nine months after her mother’s death, Rowling left to teach English in Portugal. There, she met and married a Portuguese man. The marriage was unsuccessful, but when Rowling returned to live with her sister in England in 1994, she brought with her a daughter, Jessica.
As a newly single mother, Rowling was determined to finish her book before she began working again. Rowling said that she used every spare moment to write. When her daughter fell asleep, she would “dash to the nearest café and [write] nearly every evening,” Rowling said.
After finishing her manuscript, Rowling sent a proposal to an agent who promptly returned it.
On her second try, agent Christopher Little asked for the rest of the manuscript. After a year, Little found a publisher.
“And you probably know what happened next,” Rowling said. 
