J.K. Rowling Biography

Joanne K. Rowling (pronounced rolling) is the author of the Harry Potter series of books, which began with the 1997 tale Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. (U.S. title: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.)

The book told the story of Harry Potter, a seemingly ordinary boy who discovered that he was actually a wizard.

The book was a sensational hit, and by the end of 1999 the top three slots on the New York Times list of bestsellers were taken by the first three books in the Harry Potter series.

By the 2000 release of the fourth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter had become a global pop culture phenomenon, with parents and children standing in line at bookstores waiting for the book’s release.

J.K. Rowling herself had become one of the world’s best-known and best-paid authors.

After the 2003 release of the fifth Harry Potter book, The Order of the Phoenix, the BBC reported that Rowling’s books had been translated into 60 languages (including ancient Greek) and had sold over 250 million copies worldwide.

The sequels to the original book are: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1999), 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).

The final book wrapped up the story, and Rowling said it will be the last in the Harry Potter series.

However, in 2008 she published The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a collection of fairy tales that was mentioned in the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

In 2012 she published her first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy. The next year she revealed that she had written a crime novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling, under the pen name of Robert Galbraith.

Returning to fantasy, in 2016 she launched the Fantastic Beasts series of books and movies, with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), followed by 2018’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (starring Eddie Redmayne).