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106-482: Joanne Rowling ( / ˈ r oʊ l ɪ ŋ / ROH -ling ; born 31 July 1965), known by her pen name J. 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 (2012)

212-496: A haigō (俳号). The haiku poet Matsuo Bashō had used two other haigō before he became fond of a banana plant ( bashō ) that had been given to him by a disciple and started using it as his pen name at the age of 36. Similar to a pen name, Japanese artists usually have a gō or art-name , which might change a number of times during their career. In some cases, artists adopted different gō at different stages of their career, usually to mark significant changes in their life. One of

318-671: A BA in French from Exeter, graduating in 1987 after a year of study in Paris. After university, Rowling moved to a flat in Clapham Junction with friends, and took a course to become a bilingual secretary. While she was working temporary jobs in London, Amnesty International hired her to document human rights issues in French-speaking Africa. She began writing adult novels while working as

424-472: A chartered engineer . Anne Rowling later worked as a science technician. Neither of Rowling's parents attended university. Rowling is two years older than her sister, Dianne, whose birth was Rowling's earliest memory. When she was four, Rowling's family moved to Winterbourne, Gloucestershire . She began at St Michael's Church of England Primary School in Winterbourne when she was five. The Rowlings lived near

530-485: A fairy tale , a Bildungsroman and a boarding-school story. Her other writings have been described by Pugh as gritty contemporary fiction with historical influences ( The Casual Vacancy ) and hardboiled detective fiction ( Cormoran Strike ). In Harry Potter , Rowling juxtaposes the extraordinary against the ordinary. Her narrative features two worlds – the mundane and the fantastic – but it differs from typical portal fantasy in that its magical elements stay grounded in

636-488: A "back-translation" from English. The French usage is nom de guerre (a more generalised term for 'pseudonym'). Since guerre means 'war' in French, nom de guerre confused some English speakers, who "corrected" the French metaphor. This phrase precedes "pen name", being attested to The Knickerbocker , in 1841. An author may use a pen name if their real name is likely to be confused with that of another author or other significant individual. For instance, in 1899

742-533: A B, and was named head girl at Wyedean. She applied to Oxford University in 1982 but was rejected. Biographers attribute her rejection to privilege, as she had attended a state school rather than a private one. Rowling always wanted to be a writer, but chose to study French and the classics at the University of Exeter for practical reasons, influenced by her parents who thought job prospects would be better with evidence of bilingualism . She later stated that Exeter

848-454: A Christian moral fable in the psychomachia tradition, in which stand-ins for good and evil fight for supremacy over a person's soul. The critic of children's literature Joy Farmer sees parallels between Harry and Jesus Christ . According to Maria Nikolajeva , Christian imagery is particularly strong in the final scenes of the series: she writes that Harry dies in self-sacrifice and Voldemort delivers an ecce homo speech, after which Harry

954-547: A Christian. Although she grew up next door to her church, accounts of the family's church attendance differ. She began attending a Church of Scotland congregation, where Jessica was christened, around the time she was writing Harry Potter . In a 2012 interview, she said she belonged to the Scottish Episcopal Church . Rowling has stated that she believes in God, but has experienced doubt, and that her struggles with faith play

1060-542: A Swedish author of the 19th century, wrote under the name Ernst Ahlgren. The science fiction author Alice B. Sheldon for many years published under the masculine name of James Tiptree, Jr. , the discovery of which led to a deep discussion of gender in the genre. More recently, women who write in genres commonly written by men sometimes choose to use initials, such as K. A. Applegate , C. J. Cherryh , P. N. Elrod , D. C. Fontana , S. E. Hinton , G. A. Riplinger , J. D. Robb , and J. K. Rowling . Alternatively, they may use

1166-677: A bestseller in the UK and the US. Rowling has named Jessica Mitford as her greatest influence. She said Mitford had "been my heroine since I was 14 years old, when I overheard my formidable great-aunt discussing how Mitford had run away at the age of 19 to fight with the Reds in the Spanish Civil War ", and that what inspired her about Mitford was that she was "incurably and instinctively rebellious, brave, adventurous, funny and irreverent, she liked nothing better than

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1272-505: A competition to select children's art for the print edition, which was published in the US and Canada on 10 November 2020. Profits went to charities focused on COVID-19 relief. In The Christmas Pig , a young boy loses his favourite stuffed animal, a pig, and the Christmas Pig guides him through the fantastical Land of the Lost to retrieve it. The novel was published on 12 October 2021 and became

1378-438: A failure. Tison Pugh writes that the "grinding effects of poverty, coupled with her concern for providing for her daughter as a single parent, caused great hardship". Her marriage had failed, and she was jobless with a dependent child, but she later described this as "liberating" her to focus on writing. She has said that "Jessica kept me going". Her old school friend, Sean Harris, lent her £600 ($ 900), which allowed her to move to

1484-514: A family called Potter – a name Rowling always liked. Rowling's mother liked to read and the family's homes were filled with books. Her father read The Wind in the Willows to his daughters, while her mother introduced them to the animals in Richard Scarry 's books. Rowling's first attempt at writing, a story called "Rabbit" composed when she was six, was inspired by Scarry's creatures. When Rowling

1590-511: A fault-line now separated them and their father." Rowling said in 2012 that they had not spoken in the last nine years. Rowling sought government assistance and got £69 (US$ 103) per week from Social Security ; not wanting to burden her recently married sister, she moved to a flat that she described as mouse-ridden. She later described her economic status as being as "poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless". Seven years after graduating from university, she saw herself as

1696-652: A flat in Leith , where she finished Philosopher's Stone . Arantes arrived in Scotland in March 1994 seeking both Rowling and Jessica. On 15 March 1994, Rowling sought an action of interdict (order of restraint); the interdict was granted and Arantes returned to Portugal. Early in the year, Rowling began to experience a deep depression and sought medical help when she contemplated suicide. With nine months of therapy, her mental health gradually improved. She filed for divorce on 10 August 1994;

1802-628: A foreign language, writing during the day. Five months after arriving in Porto, Rowling met the Portuguese television journalist Jorge Arantes in a bar and found that they shared an interest in Jane Austen . By mid-1992, they were planning a trip to London to introduce Arantes to Rowling's family, when she had a miscarriage. The relationship was troubled, but they married on 16 October 1992. Their daughter Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes (named after Jessica Mitford)

1908-499: A friend gave her money that allowed her to come off benefits and enrol full-time in college. Still needing money and expecting to make a living by teaching, Rowling began a teacher training course in August 1995 at Moray House School of Education after completing her first novel. She earned her teaching certificate in July 1996 and began teaching at Leith Academy . Rowling later said that writing

2014-475: A good fight, preferably against a pompous and hypocritical target". As a child, Rowling read C. S. Lewis 's The Chronicles of Narnia , Elizabeth Goudge 's The Little White Horse , Manxmouse by Paul Gallico , and books by E. Nesbit and Noel Streatfeild . Rowling describes Jane Austen as her "favourite author of all time". Rowling acknowledges Homer , Geoffrey Chaucer , and William Shakespeare as literary influences. Scholars agree that Harry Potter

2120-407: A job in the chemistry department at Wyedean while her daughters were there. The three walked to and from school together, with a relationship more like sisters than mother and daughters. John Nettleship , the head of science at Wyedean, described Anne as "absolutely brilliant, a sparkling character ... very imaginative". Anne was diagnosed with a "virulent strain" of multiple sclerosis when she

2226-736: A joint-partnership with Qatar Foundation . The partnership created a publishing house, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing ; it worked mainly with English and Arabic literature. Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals (BQFJ), an open access and peer reviewed academic publisher, was created in December 2010 as a joint venture with Qatar Foundation. Journal research articles were published through BQFJ's website QScience.com . The company's partnership with Qatar Foundation ended in December 2015 and all of Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing works were incorporated in Qatari-owned HBKU Press. At

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2332-533: A newly created children's list. The final four books each set records as the fastest-selling books in the UK or US, and the series as a whole had sold more than 600 million copies as of 2023. Neither of Rowling's later works, The Casual Vacancy and the Cormoran Strike series, has been as successful, although Casual Vacancy was still a bestseller in the UK within weeks of its release. Harry Potter 's popularity has been attributed to factors including

2438-536: A part in her books. She does not believe in magic or witchcraft . Rowling married Neil Murray, a doctor, in 2001. The couple intended to marry that July in the Galapagos , but when this leaked to the press, they delayed their wedding and changed their holiday destination to Mauritius . After the UK Press Complaints Commission ruled that a magazine had breached Jessica's privacy when the eight-year-old

2544-487: A pen name is used because an author believes that their name does not suit the genre they are writing in. Western novelist Pearl Gray dropped his first name and changed the spelling of his last name to Zane Grey because he believed that his real name did not suit the Western genre. Romance novelist Angela Knight writes under that name instead of her actual name (Julie Woodcock) because of the double entendre of her surname in

2650-534: A pen name may preserve an author's long-term anonymity . Pen name is formed by joining pen with name . Its earliest use in English is in the 1860s, in the writings of Bayard Taylor . The French-language phrase nom de plume is used as a synonym for "pen name" ( plume means 'pen'). However, it is not the French usage, according to H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler in The King's English , but instead

2756-592: A prequel to the Harry Potter series, set roughly 70 years earlier, was released in November 2016. Rowling wrote the screenplay, which was released as a book. Crimes of Grindelwald was released in November 2018. Secrets of Dumbledore was released in April 2022. In November 2022, Variety reported that Warner Bros. Discovery was not actively planning to continue the film series or to develop any further films related to

2862-467: A school of wizardry also appears, and the Chrestomanci books by Jones. Rowling's setting of a "school of witchcraft and wizardry" departs from the still older tradition of protagonists as apprentices to magicians, exemplified by The Sorcerer's Apprentice : yet this trope does appear in Harry Potter , when Harry receives individual instruction from Remus Lupin and other teachers. Rowling also draws on

2968-652: A temp, although they were never published. In 1990, she planned to move with her boyfriend to Manchester , and frequently took long train trips to visit. In mid-1990, she was on a train delayed by four hours from Manchester to London, when the characters Harry Potter , Ron Weasley , and Hermione Granger came plainly into her mind. Having no pen or paper allowed her to fully explore the characters and their story in her imagination before she reached her flat and began to write. Rowling moved to Manchester around November 1990. She described her time in Manchester, where she worked for

3074-456: A unisex pen name, such as Robin Hobb (the second pen name of novelist Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden ). A collective name , also known as a house name , is published under one pen name even though more than one author may have contributed to the series. In some cases, the first books in the series were written by one writer, but subsequent books were written by ghostwriters . For instance, many of

3180-596: Is resurrected and defeats his enemy. Death is Rowling's overarching theme in Harry Potter . In the first book, when Harry looks into the Mirror of Erised, he feels both joy and "a terrible sadness" at seeing his desire: his parents, alive and with him. Confronting their loss is central to Harry's character arc and manifests in different ways through the series, such as in his struggles with Dementors . Other characters in Harry's life die; he even faces his own death in Harry Potter and

3286-405: Is a wizard who lives with his non-magical relatives until his eleventh birthday, when he is invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry . Rowling wrote six sequels, which follow Harry's adventures at Hogwarts with friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley and his attempts to defeat Lord Voldemort , who killed Harry's parents when he was a child. Rowling received the news that

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3392-720: Is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located on Bedford Square in Bloomsbury , an area of the London Borough of Camden . It has a US publishing office located in New York City , an India publishing office in New Delhi , an Australian sales office in Sydney CBD , and other publishing offices in the UK, including in Oxford . It is listed on

3498-664: Is difficult to trace the authorship of many earlier literary works from India. Later writers adopted the practice of using the name of their deity of worship or Guru's name as their pen name. In this case, typically the pen name would be included at the end of the prose or poetry. Composers of Indian classical music used pen names in compositions to assert authorship, including Sadarang , Gunarang ( Fayyaz Ahmed Khan ), Ada Rang (court musician of Muhammad Shah ), Sabrang ( Bade Ghulam Ali Khan ), and Ramrang ( Ramashreya Jha ). Other compositions are apocryphally ascribed to composers with their pen names. Japanese poets who write haiku often use

3604-702: Is heavily influenced by the children's fantasy of writers such as Lewis, Goudge, Nesbit, J. R. R. Tolkien , Ursula K. Le Guin , and Diana Wynne Jones . According to the critic Beatrice Groves, Harry Potter is also "rooted in the Western literary tradition ", including the classics. Commentators also note similarities to the children's stories of Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl . Rowling expresses admiration for Lewis, in whose writing battles between good and evil are also prominent, but rejects any connection with Dahl. Earlier works prominently featuring characters who learn to use magic include Le Guin's Earthsea series, in which

3710-729: Is heroic, making him both an everyman and a fairytale hero. Arthurian , Christian and fairytale motifs are frequently found in Rowling's writing. Harry's ability to draw the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat resembles the Arthurian sword in the stone legend. His life with the Dursleys has been compared to Cinderella . Like C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia , Harry Potter contains Christian symbolism and allegory . The series has been viewed as

3816-455: The Bessie Bunter series of English boarding school stories, initially written by the prolific Charles Hamilton under the name Hilda Richards, was taken on by other authors who continued to use the same pen name. In some forms of fiction, the pen name adopted is the name of the lead character, to suggest to the reader that the book is an autobiography of a real person. Daniel Handler used

3922-1091: The Harry Potter series . Rowling has won many accolades for her work. She has received an OBE and made a Companion of Honour for services to literature and philanthropy. Harry Potter brought her wealth and recognition, which she has used to advance philanthropic endeavours and political causes. She established the Volant Charitable Trust in 2000, and co-founded the charity Lumos in 2005. Rowling's philanthropy centres on medical causes and supporting at-risk women and children. In 2012, Forbes estimated that Rowling's charitable giving totaled US$ 160 million. She has also donated to Britain's Labour Party , and opposed Scottish independence and Brexit . Since 2017, Rowling has been vocal about her opinions on transgender people and related civil rights . Her comments, described as transphobic by critics and LGBT rights organisations , have divided feminists , fuelled debates on freedom of speech and cancel culture , and prompted declarations of support for transgender people from

4028-531: The London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index . The company was founded in 1986 by Nigel Newton , who had previously been employed by other publishing companies. It was floated as a public registered company in 1994, raising £5.5 million, which was used to fund expansion of the company into paperback and children's books. A rights issue of shares in 1998 further raised £6.1 million, which

4134-563: The Upper Sixth , owned a turquoise Ford Anglia that provided an escape from her difficult home life and the means for Harris and Rowling to broaden their activities. Living in a small town with pressures at home, Rowling became more interested in her schoolwork. Steve Eddy, her first secondary school English teacher, remembers her as "not exceptional" but "one of a group of girls who were bright, and quite good at English". Rowling took A-levels in English, French, and German, achieving two As and

4240-542: The Blair Partnership. He represented her for the publication of The Casual Vacancy , released in September 2012 by Little, Brown and Company . It was Rowling's first since Harry Potter ended, and her first book for adults. A contemporary take on 19th-century British fiction about village life, Casual Vacancy was promoted as a black comedy , while the critic Ian Parker described it as a "rural comedy of manners ". It

4346-519: The British politician Winston Churchill wrote under the name Winston S. Churchill to distinguish his writings from those of the American novelist of the same name . An author may use a pen name implying a rank or title which they have never actually held. William Earl Johns wrote under the name "Capt. W. E. Johns" although the highest army rank he held was acting lieutenant and his highest air force rank

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4452-591: The Chamber of Commerce and at Manchester University in temp jobs, as a "year of misery". Her mother died of multiple sclerosis on 30 December 1990. At the time, she was writing Harry Potter and had never told her mother about it. Her mother's death heavily affected Rowling's writing. She later said that her literary creation of the Mirror of Erised is about her mother's death, and noted an "evident parallelism" between Harry confronting his own mortality and her life. The pain of

4558-502: The Deathly Hallows . Rowling has spoken about thematising death and loss in the series. Soon after she started writing Philosopher's Stone , her mother died, and she said that "I really think from that moment on, death became a central, if not the central theme of the seven books". Rowling has described Harry as "the prism through which I view death", and further stated that "all of my characters are defined by their attitude to death and

4664-670: The Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), each selling millions of copies. When Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix had not appeared by 2002, rumours circulated that Rowling was suffering writer's block . Rowling denied these rumours, stating the 896-page book took three years to write because of its length. It was published in June 2003, selling millions of copies on

4770-518: The Sorcerer's Stone . Sorcerer's Stone was released in the United States in September 1998. It was not widely reviewed, but the reviews it received were generally positive. Sorcerer's Stone became a New York Times bestseller by December. The next three books in the series were released in quick succession between 1998 and 2000: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), Harry Potter and

4876-563: The US rights were being auctioned at the Bologna Children's Book Fair . To her surprise and delight, Scholastic Corporation bought the rights for $ 105,000. She bought a flat in Edinburgh with the money from the sale. Arthur A. Levine, head of the imprint at Scholastic, pushed for a name change. He wanted Harry Potter and the School of Magic ; as a compromise Rowling suggested Harry Potter and

4982-584: The Wizarding World franchise. By 1998, Rowling was portrayed in the media as a "penniless divorcee hitting the jackpot". According to her biographer Sean Smith, the publicity became effective marketing for Harry Potter , but her journey from living on benefits to wealth brought, along with fame, concerns from different groups about the books' portrayals of the occult and gender roles . Ultimately, Smith says that these concerns served to "enhance [her] public profile rather than damage it". Rowling identifies as

5088-421: The aliases Mark Twain and Sieur Louis de Conte for different works. Similarly, an author who writes both fiction and non-fiction (such as the mathematician and fantasy writer Charles Dodgson, who wrote as Lewis Carroll ) may use a pseudonym for fiction writing. Science fiction author Harry Turtledove has used the name H. N. Turtletaub for some historical novels he has written because he and his publisher felt that

5194-449: The author of the Warriors novel series, is a collective pen name used by authors Kate Cary , Cherith Baldry , Tui T. Sutherland , and the editor Victoria Holmes . Collaborative authors may also have their works published under a single pen name. Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee published their mystery novels and stories under the pen name Ellery Queen , which was also used to publish

5300-495: The author's name more distinctive, to disguise the author's gender, to distance the author from their other works, to protect the author from retribution for their writings, to merge multiple persons into a single identifiable author, or for any of several reasons related to the marketing or aesthetic presentation of the work. The author's real identity may be known only to the publisher or may become common knowledge. In some cases, such as those of Elena Ferrante and Torsten Krol ,

5406-614: The best-selling living author in Britain. The 2021 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowling's fortune at £820 million, ranking her as the 196th-richest person in the UK. As of 2020, she also owns a £4.5 million Georgian house in Kensington and a £2 million home in Edinburgh, where she lives with Murray and her two youngest children. In mid-2011, Rowling left Christopher Little Literary Agency and followed her agent Neil Blair to

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5512-495: The central themes of the series. Its influences include Bildungsroman (the coming-of-age genre), school stories , fairy tales , and Christian allegory . The series revived fantasy as a genre in the children's market, spawned a host of imitators, and inspired an active fandom . Critical reception has been more mixed. Many reviewers see Rowling's writing as conventional; some regard her portrayal of gender and social division as regressive. There were also religious debates over

5618-548: The context of that genre. Romain Gary , who was a well-known French writer, decided in 1973 to write novels in a different style under the name Émile Ajar and even asked his cousin's son to impersonate Ajar; thus he received the most prestigious French literary prize twice, which is forbidden by the prize rules. He revealed the affair in a book he sent his editor just before committing suicide in 1980. A pen name may be shared by different writers to suggest continuity of authorship. Thus

5724-468: The culture sector. Although she writes under the pen name J. K. Rowling, before her remarriage her name was Joanne Rowling, or Jo. At birth, she had no middle name. Staff at Bloomsbury Publishing suggested that she use two initials rather than her full name, anticipating that young boys – their target audience – would not want to read a book written by a woman. She chose K as the second initial, from her paternal grandmother Kathleen Rowling, and because of

5830-399: The divorce was finalised on 26 June 1995. Rowling wanted to finish the book before enrolling in a teacher training course, fearing she might not be able to finish once she started the course. She often wrote in cafés, including Nicolson's, part-owned by her brother-in-law. Secretarial work brought in £15 ($ 22.50) per week, but she would lose government benefits if she earned more. In mid-1995,

5936-532: The ease of pronunciation of the two consecutive letters. Following her 2001 remarriage, she has sometimes used the name Joanne Murray when conducting personal business. Joanne Rowling was born on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire , to a middle-class family. Her parents Anne ( née Volant) and Peter ("Pete") James Rowling had met the previous year on a train, sharing a trip from King's Cross station , London, to their naval postings at Arbroath , Scotland. Rowling's mother

6042-519: The end of the name (often marked by a graphical sign   ـؔ   placed above it) when referring to the poet by his full name. For example, Hafez is a pen-name for Shams al-Din , and thus the usual way to refer to him would be Shams al-Din Hafez or just Hafez . Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan (his official name and title) is referred to as Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib , or just Mirza Ghalib . Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc

6148-480: The enigmatic twentieth-century novelist B. Traven has never been conclusively revealed, despite thorough research. A multiple-use name or anonymity pseudonym is a pseudonym open for anyone to use and these have been adopted by various groups, often as a protest against the cult of individual creators. In Italy, two anonymous groups of writers have gained some popularity with the collective names of Luther Blissett and Wu Ming . Wuxia novelist Louis Cha uses

6254-437: The everyday. Paintings move and talk; books bite readers; letters shout messages; and maps show live journeys, making the wizarding world "both exotic and cosily familiar" according to the scholar Catherine Butler . This blend of realistic and romantic elements extends to Rowling's characters. Harry is ordinary and relatable, with down-to-earth features such as wearing broken glasses; these elements serve to highlight Harry when he

6360-536: The first Harry Potter book had saved her life and that her concerns about "love, loss, separation, death ... are reflected in the first book". Rowling completed Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in June 1995. The initial draft included an illustration of Harry by a fireplace, showing a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. Following an enthusiastic report from an early reader, Christopher Little Literary Agency agreed to represent Rowling. Her manuscript

6466-469: The first day. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released two years later in July 2005, again selling millions of copies on the first day. The series ended with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , published in July 2007. In 1999, Warner Bros. purchased film rights to the first two Harry Potter novels for a reported $ 1 million. Rowling accepted the offer with the provision that

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6572-429: The first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , was published in 1997. Six sequels followed, concluding with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007). By 2008, Forbes had named her the world's highest-paid author. The novels follow a boy called Harry Potter as he attends Hogwarts (a school for wizards), and battles Lord Voldemort . Death and the divide between good and evil are

6678-447: The journalist Richard Brooks contacted Rowling's agent, who confirmed Galbraith was Rowling's pseudonym. Rowling later said she enjoyed working as Robert Galbraith, a name she took from Robert F. Kennedy , a personal hero, and Ella Galbraith, a name she invented for herself in childhood. After the revelation of her identity, sales of Cuckoo's Calling escalated. Continuing the Cormoran Strike series of detective novels, The Silkworm

6784-532: The later books in The Saint adventure series were not written by Leslie Charteris , the series' originator. Similarly, Nancy Drew mystery books are published as though they were written by Carolyn Keene , The Hardy Boys books are published as the work of Franklin W. Dixon , and The Bobbsey Twins series are credited to Laura Lee Hope , although numerous authors have been involved in each series. Erin Hunter ,

6890-465: The loss of her mother was compounded when some personal effects her mother had left her were stolen. With the end of the relationship with her boyfriend, and "being made redundant from an office job in Manchester", Rowling described herself as being in a state of "fight or flight". An advertisement in The Guardian led her to move to Porto , Portugal, in November 1991 to teach night classes in English as

6996-514: The most extreme examples of this is Hokusai , who in the period 1798 to 1806 alone used no fewer than six. Manga artist Ogure Ito uses the pen name Oh! great because his real name Ogure Ito is roughly how the Japanese pronounce "oh great". A shâ'er ( Persian from Arabic, for poet) (a poet who writes she'rs in Urdu or Persian ) almost always has a "takhallus", a pen name, traditionally placed at

7102-510: The name "Publius" because it recalled the founder of the Roman Republic and using it implied a positive intention. In pure mathematics , Nicolas Bourbaki is the pseudonym of a group of mostly French-connected mathematicians attempting to expose the field in an axiomatic and self-contained, encyclopedic form. A pseudonym may be used to protect the writer of exposé books about espionage or crime. Former SAS soldier Steven Billy Mitchell used

7208-400: The nostalgia evoked by the boarding-school story, the endearing nature of Rowling's characters, and the accessibility of her books to a variety of readers. According to Julia Eccleshare , the books are "neither too literary nor too popular, too difficult nor too easy, neither too young nor too old", and hence bridge traditional reading divides. Pen name A pen name may be used to make

7314-408: The pack groups (Fairies, Pixies, Sprites, Elves, Gnomes and Imps) provided a magical world away from her stern teacher. When she was eleven or twelve, she wrote a short story, "The Seven Cursed Diamonds". She later described herself during this period as "the epitome of a bookish child – short and squat, thick National Health glasses, living in a world of complete daydreams". Rowling's secondary school

7420-484: The pen name Gum Yoong (金庸) by taking apart the components of the Chinese character in his given name (鏞) from his birth name Cha Leung-yung (查良鏞). In Indian languages, writers may put a pen name at the end of their names, like Ramdhari Singh Dinkar . Some writers, like Firaq Gorakhpuri , wrote only under a pen name. In early Indian literature, authors considered the use of names egotistical. Because names were avoided, it

7526-449: The plots of the novels. The film series concluded with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , which was adapted in two parts; part one was released on 19 November 2010, and part two followed on 15 July 2011. Warner Bros. announced an expanded relationship with Rowling in 2013, including a planned series of films about her character Newt Scamander, fictitious author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them . The first film of five,

7632-462: The possibility of death". While Harry Potter can be viewed as a story about good versus evil, its moral divisions are not absolute. First impressions of characters are often misleading. Harry assumes in the first book that Quirrell is good because he opposes Snape, who appears malicious; in reality, their positions are reversed. In Rowling's world, good and evil are choices rather than inherent attributes: second chances and redemption are key themes of

7738-419: The presumed lower sales of those novels might hurt bookstore orders for the novels he writes under his name. Occasionally, a pen name is employed to avoid overexposure. Prolific authors for pulp magazines often had two and sometimes three short stories appearing in one issue of a magazine; the editor would create several fictitious author names to hide this from readers. Robert A. Heinlein wrote stories under

7844-442: The pseudonym Andy McNab for his book about a failed SAS mission titled Bravo Two Zero . The name Ibn Warraq ("son of a papermaker") has been used by dissident Muslim authors. Author Brian O'Nolan used the pen names Flann O'Brien and Myles na gCopaleen for his novels and journalistic writing from the 1940s to the 1960s because Irish civil servants were not permitted at that time to publish political writings. The identity of

7950-419: The pseudonym George Sand . Charlotte , Emily , and Anne Brontë published under the names Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, respectively. French-Savoyard writer and poet Amélie Gex chose to publish as Dian de Jeânna ("John, son of Jane") during the first half of her career. Karen Blixen 's very successful Out of Africa (1937) was originally published under the pen name Isak Dinesen. Victoria Benedictsson ,

8056-723: The pseudonym Lemony Snicket to present his A Series of Unfortunate Events books as memoirs by an acquaintance of the main characters. Some, however, do this to fit a certain theme. One example, Pseudonymous Bosch , used his pen name just to expand the theme of secrecy in The Secret Series . Authors also may occasionally choose pen names to appear in more favorable positions in bookshops or libraries , to maximize visibility when placed on shelves that are conventionally arranged alphabetically moving horizontally, then upwards vertically. Some female authors have used pen names to ensure that their works were accepted by publishers and/or

8162-486: The pseudonyms of Anson MacDonald (a combination of his middle name and his then-wife's maiden name) and Caleb Strong so that more of his works could be published in a single magazine. Stephen King published four novels under the name Richard Bachman because publishers did not feel the public would buy more than one novel per year from a single author. Eventually, after critics found a large number of style similarities, publishers revealed Bachman's true identity. Sometimes

8268-460: The public. Such is the case of Peru's Clarinda , whose work was published in the early 17th century. More often, women have adopted masculine pen names. This was common in the 19th century when women were beginning to make inroads into literature but, it was felt they would not be taken as seriously by readers as male authors. For example, Mary Ann Evans wrote under the pen name George Eliot ; and Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, and Baronne Dudevant, used

8374-631: The question of why Rowling chose to stay with her sister rather than her father. Rowling has spoken of an estrangement from her father, stating in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that "It wasn't a good relationship from my point of view for a very long time but I had a need to please and I kept that going for a long time and then there ... just came a point at which I had to pull up and say I can't do this anymore." Pete had married his secretary within two years of Anne's death, and The Scotsman reported in 2003 that "[t]he speed of his decision to move in with his secretary ... distressed both sisters and

8480-412: The same pseudonym; examples include T. H. Lain in fiction. The Australian fiction collaborators who write under the pen name Alice Campion are a group of women who have so far written The Painted Sky (2015) and The Shifting Light (2017). In the 1780s, The Federalist Papers were written under the pseudonym "Publius" by Alexander Hamilton , James Madison , and John Jay . The three men chose

8586-410: The series. Rowling has enjoyed enormous commercial success as an author. Her Harry Potter series topped bestseller lists, spawned a global media franchise including films and video games , and had been translated into 84 languages by 2023. The first three Harry Potter books occupied the top three spots of The New York Times bestseller list for more than a year; they were then moved to

8692-413: The studio only produce Harry Potter films based on books she authored, while retaining the right to final script approval, and some control over merchandising. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , an adaptation of the first Harry Potter book, was released in November 2001. Steve Kloves wrote the screenplays for all but the fifth film, with Rowling's assistance, ensuring that his scripts kept to

8798-567: The time of BQFP's dissolution it had published over 200 books. BQFJ's works were also incorporated in HBKU Press. In 2012, Bloomsbury established a publishing office in India . In May 2023, an article in The Verge reported that the cover of the UK edition of House of Earth and Blood , published by Bloomsbury, uses an AI-generated image. In 2018, it was confirmed that much of the company's growth over

8904-404: The tradition of stories set in boarding schools , a major example of which is Thomas Hughes 's 1857 volume Tom Brown's School Days . Rowling is known primarily as an author of fantasy and children's literature . Her writing in other genres, including literary fiction and murder mystery , has received less critical attention. Rowling's most famous work, Harry Potter , has been defined as

9010-491: The work of several ghostwriters they commissioned. The writers of Atlanta Nights , a deliberately bad book intended to embarrass the publishing firm PublishAmerica , used the pen name Travis Tea. Additionally, the credited author of The Expanse , James S. A. Corey , is an amalgam of the middle names of collaborating writers Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck respectively, while S. A. is the initials of Abraham's daughter. Sometimes multiple authors will write related books under

9116-426: Was Wyedean School and College , a state school she began attending at the age of eleven and where she was bullied. Rowling was inspired by her favourite teacher, Lucy Shepherd, who taught the importance of structure and precision in writing. Smith writes that Rowling "craved to play heavy electric guitar", and describes her as "intelligent yet shy". Her teacher Dale Neuschwander was impressed by her imagination. When she

9222-608: Was flying officer . Authors who regularly write in more than one genre may use different pen names for each, either in an attempt to conceal their true identity or even after their identity is known. Romance writer Nora Roberts writes erotic thrillers under the pen name J. D. Robb (such books were originally listed as by "J. D. Robb" and are now titled "Nora Roberts writing as J. D. Robb"); Scots writer Iain Banks wrote mainstream or literary fiction under his own name and science fiction under Iain M. Banks; Samuel Langhorne Clemens used

9328-560: Was 34 or 35 and Jo was 15, and had to quit her job. Rowling's home life was complicated by her mother's illness and a strained relationship with her father. Rowling later said "home was a difficult place to be", and that her teenage years were unhappy. In 2020, she wrote that her father would have preferred a son and described herself as having severe obsessive–compulsive disorder in her teens. She began to smoke, took an interest in alternative rock , and adopted Siouxsie Sioux 's back-combed hair and black eyeliner. Sean Harris, her best friend in

9434-572: Was Rowling's first book aimed at children since Harry Potter . Ickabog is a monster that turns out to be real; a group of children find out the truth about the Ickabog and save the day. Rowling released The Ickabog for free online in mid-2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom . She began writing it in 2009 but set it aside to focus on other works including Casual Vacancy . Scholastic held

9540-468: Was a young teenager, Rowling's great-aunt gave her Hons and Rebels , the autobiography of the civil rights activist Jessica Mitford . Mitford became Rowling's heroine, and she read all her books. Anne had a strong influence on her daughter. Early in Rowling's life, the support of her mother and sister instilled confidence and enthusiasm for storytelling. Anne was a creative and accomplished cook, who helped lead her daughters' Brownie activities, and took

9646-488: Was about nine, the family purchased the historic Church Cottage in Tutshill . In 1974, Rowling began attending the nearby Church of England School. Biographer Sean Smith describes her teacher as a "battleaxe" who "struck fear into the hearts of the children"; Rowling's teacher seated her in "dunces' row" after she performed poorly on an arithmetic test. In 1975, Rowling joined a Brownies pack. Its special events and parties, and

9752-545: Was adapted to a miniseries co-created by the BBC and HBO . Little, Brown and Company also published The Cuckoo's Calling , the purported début novel of Robert Galbraith, in April 2013. Telling the story of detective Cormoran Strike, a disabled veteran of the War in Afghanistan , it initially sold 1,500 copies in hardback. After an investigation prompted by discussion on Twitter ,

9858-535: Was awarded a writer's grant by the Scottish Arts Council to support her childcare costs and finances before Philosopher's Stone 's publication, and to aid in writing the sequel, Chamber of Secrets . On 26 June 1997, Bloomsbury published Philosopher's Stone with an initial print run of 5,650 copies. Before Chamber of Secrets was published, Rowling had received £2,800 ($ 4,200) in royalties. Philosopher's Stone introduces Harry Potter . Harry

9964-464: Was born in 2003, and their daughter Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray in 2005. In 2004, Forbes named Rowling "the first billion-dollar author". Rowling denied that she was a billionaire in a 2005 interview. By 2012, Forbes concluded she was no longer a billionaire due to her charitable donations and high UK taxes. She was named the world's highest paid author by Forbes in 2008, 2017 and 2019. Her UK sales total in excess of £238 million, making her

10070-486: Was born on 27 July 1993 in Portugal. By this time, Rowling had finished the first three chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone – almost as they were eventually published – and had drafted the rest of the novel. Rowling experienced domestic abuse during her marriage. Arantes said in June 2020 that he had slapped her and did not regret it. Rowling described the marriage as "short and catastrophic". She says she

10176-481: 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

10282-451: Was included in a photograph of the family taken during that trip, Murray and Rowling sought a more private and quiet place to live and work. Rowling bought Killiechassie House and its estate in Perthshire , Scotland, and on 26 December 2001, the couple had a small, private wedding there, officiated by an Episcopalian priest who travelled from Edinburgh. Their son, David Gordon Rowling Murray,

10388-544: Was not allowed to have a house key and that her husband used the growing manuscript of her first book as a hostage. Rowling and Arantes separated on 17 November 1993 after Arantes threw her out of the house; she returned with the police to retrieve Jessica and her belongings and went into hiding for two weeks before she left Portugal. In late 1993, with a draft of Harry Potter in her suitcase, Rowling moved with her daughter to Edinburgh , Scotland , planning to stay with her sister until Christmas. Her biographer Sean Smith raises

10494-421: Was not initially what she expected ("to be among lots of similar people – thinking radical thoughts") but that she enjoyed herself after she met more people like her. She was an average student at Exeter, described by biographers as prioritising her social life over her studies, and lacking ambition and enthusiasm. Rowling recalls doing little work at university, preferring to read Dickens and Tolkien . She earned

10600-444: Was picked up by HBO for distribution in the United States and Canada. In September 2024, Rowling tweeted that she had begun work on a futuristic novel; she added that there were three different projects she could turn to, once the tenth and final planned Strike novel had been published. Pottermore , a website with information and stories about characters in the Harry Potter universe, launched in 2011. On its release, Pottermore

10706-469: Was published as a book in July 2016. The play follows the friendship between Harry's son Albus and Scorpius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy 's son, at Hogwarts. In April 2023, it was announced that the Harry Potter television series will span 10 years of production and feature a season dedicated to each of the seven Harry Potter books , with Rowling as executive producer . It will release in 2026. The Ickabog

10812-462: Was released in 2014; Career of Evil in 2015; Lethal White in 2018; Troubled Blood in 2020; The Ink Black Heart in 2022; and The Running Grave in 2023. In 2017, BBC One aired the first episode of the five-season series Strike , a television adaptation of the Cormoran Strike novels starring Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger , with a sixth season being shot in 2024. The series

10918-803: Was rooted in the Harry Potter novels, tracing the series's story in an interactive format. Its brand was associated with Rowling: she introduced the site in a video as a shared media environment to which she and Harry Potter fans would contribute. The site was substantially revised in 2015 to resemble an encyclopedia of Harry Potter . Harry Potter and the Cursed Child premiered in the West End in May 2016 and on Broadway in July. At its London premiere, Rowling confirmed that she would not write any more Harry Potter books. Rowling collaborated with writer Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany . Cursed Child 's script

11024-406: Was submitted to twelve publishers, all of which rejected it. Barry Cunningham , who ran the children's literature department at Bloomsbury Publishing , bought it, after Nigel Newton , who headed Bloomsbury at the time, saw his eight-year-old daughter finish one chapter and want to keep reading. Rowling recalls Cunningham telling her, "You'll never make any money out of children's books, Jo." Rowling

11130-473: Was used to expand the company, in particular to found a U.S. branch. In 1998, Bloomsbury USA was established. Bloomsbury USA Books for Young Readers was established in 2002, and in 2005, Bloomsbury acquired Walker & Co, a small company dedicated to publishing nonfiction. The Walker brand was discontinued in 2015 and sold to Walker Publishing Company. In December 2008, Bloomsbury opened a branch in Doha, Qatar in

11236-695: Was with the Wrens and her father with the Royal Navy . Pete Rowling was the son of a machine-tool setter who later opened a grocery shop. They left the navy life and sought a country home to raise the baby they were expecting, and married on 14 March 1965 when both were 19. The Rowlings settled in Yate, where Pete started work as an assembly-line production worker at the Bristol Siddeley factory. The company became part of Rolls-Royce , and he worked his way into management as

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