A Brief Biography of J.K. Rowling

Hundreds of students, parents, and faculty members gathered and created an audience to witness J.K Rowling’s speech at Harvard University in 2008. J.K Rowling is a well-known author, famous for her Harry Potter book series, and much more. Rowling’s speech was well thought out, and delivered excellently, with three main points she addresses throughout the speech. The three points being: failure can lead a person to success, never give up hope on your dreams and aspirations, and lastly Rowling emphasizes the importance of imagination. Sometimes we fail to see that the obstacles in our life help shape the road to our success in the future, and Rowling points out to us that failures and obstacles is what helped us become successful , and to never ignore that.

However, there are many great people who had overcome adversity through being grit. For example, a famous author, J.K. Rowling is known for her best-selling series Harry Potter. However, Rowling was not rich or famous before the series, she faced many challenges throughout her life. Around the age of twenty-five, Rowling discovered that her mother died from a disease, later, she got married, but she struggled in her marriage with her husband, soon they got a divorce. In addition, Rowling was a single mother, who took care of her daughter on welfare. Through the struggle, wanting to commit a suicide, she decided to do something that she is very passionate about, writing. At this point, Rowling’s began to take a drastic turn for the better, the idea of writing a Harry Potter book. Years later, after she had finally finished the book, she sent it to an agent, but it got declined. Even though

During adversities, J.K. Rowling finds hope in writing. Rowling has gone through many hardships in her lifetime; the death of her mother and collapse of her marriage sent Rowling into a deep depression. Being left to raise her daughter alone, Rowling had to find a way to keep going, which she did through her writing. “Despite numerous setbacks, she found solace in doing what she loved –writing” (Ostrowsky). Rowling struggled through her depression only to find that writing gave her

“The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination” is a commencement speech that J.K. Rowling wrote and addressed to the Harvard University graduates, class of 2008. The key elements she focused on were “benefits of failure” and the “importance of imagination.” The main idea of the speech was to help prepare the graduates in the real world by using her personal experiences for them to relate to. The emphasis was placed on failure and imagination are two important tools to have through life.

Joanne Rowling was born on July 31st, 1965 at Yate General Hospital just outside Bristol, and grew up in Gloucestershire in England and in Chepstow, Gwent, in south-east Wales.(Source #5). When Joanne was little, she was always reading. (Source 5), she even wrote a book at six and called it Rabbit (Source #1), and when she was eleven she wrote a book about cursed diamonds.(Source #3). Joanne went to school At Exeter Uni and had a library fine of about 69.54. (Source #5). She also taught Writing in Portugal (Source #5). Rowling got the idea for Harry Potter on a train to Manchester, (Source #2), she was a single mom when she was writing her first book, but still managed to write best selling books. (Source #1), and she was helped by the government until the release of her first book. (Source #2).

She always wanted to complete her education so when she was 26, she attended Morgan State University's high school by a lie that she is 16. After she graduated high school, she

J.K Rowling is an incredibly talented author who has broken barriers for children’s books, and is an inspiration to all authors who come after her. She didn’t learn it on her own though, she has many other literary and cultural influences who helped her story along. We see many literary comparisons to authors like J.R.R Tolkien and C.S Lewis, and then we see the cultural influence such as Arthurian legend. In my research, I have found that a lot of her writing has been influenced by mythology. J.K Rowling herself has a passion for Greek, Roman, and classical mythology, and has been successful in sneaking it into the Harry Potter series through characters, spells, and even her magical creatures.

Throughout J.K. Rowling’s seven book series, Harry Potter, she displays many different themes. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone there is a theme of humility. In the Goblet of Fire, there is a theme of maturity among the main characters. In Deathly Hallows, there is a theme of unity. The themes of humility, friends helping friends, and keeping faith and unifying are important in these three books.

At age 15, Rowling was confounded when given the news that her mother had become shoddily ill with numerous scleroses, an autoimmune disease. Stressed by her parents to become a secretary, Rowling attended the University of Exeter beginning at age 18 1983 and studied French. She lived in Paris for a year. After she ended college, Rowling stayed in London and worked at a number of jobs. Her mother died on December 30, 1990. Her mother's death was truly hard for her to take in. In an attempt to leave the sorrowfulness, Rowling began a job teaching English in Portugal. Her mother's death was sensible and difficult feelings for Harry Potter about his parents' deaths. JK. Rowling is the author of the Harry Potter series. She has won a lot of awards,

Although Joanne Rowling is considered to be one of the most successful authors in the industry, she had many obstacles to go through in order to achieve success. Joanne Rowling was born on July, 31st, 1965 in Yate England. During her elementary school years, Joanne Rowling was always interested in reading and writing stories and got influenced from her family to start reading. After graduating Exeter University, she married Jorge Arantes, a Portuguese journalist, and had a daughter named Jessica. Joanne Rowling shortly divorced and lived as a poor single mother and started writing what will be Harry Potter The Sorcerers Stone. Despite her troubles, Joanna Rowling was able to publish the Harry Potter series under the pen name J.K. Rowling

During her adolescent years, Joanne was not particularly close with her father, Peter Rowling. This distance exacerbated after Joanne’s father had remarried to another woman, one year after the death of Anne Volant Rowling in December 1990. Joanne and Dianne Rowling were strongly against this remarriage. Furthermore, the relationship between Joanne and her father aggravated, as Peter sold a rare collection of “Harry Potter” first edition novels to cover his £100,000 debts. These major events caused Joanne and Peter Rowling to ‘share’ an estranged relationship with each other.

Born in Yate, Glouchester to an air craft engineer and a science technician, Rowling’s early life was a happy one. She attended St. Michael’s Primary school, and

I’ve always loved writing, probably because it’s the only art I’ve ever felt like I’m good at. As a child, I would create written stories, which led to a teenage ambition of writing a full novel. As an adult, I still hold this ambition, although it has evolved into more than just writing a fictional book. I’m full of ideas that I log onto a list of writing ideas, some of which I’ve attempted, including two children’s stories, a musical play, and a non-fiction work in the field I’m working towards.

The story events take place England, in Hogwarts school and The Department Of Ministry. King’s Cross Station is where most events took place before school. The Author J.K. Rowling conceived of the idea of this setting in 1990 while sitting on a delayed train from Manchester to London, King’s Cross. King’s Cross is mentioned in the book and the book/movie series, and is referred to as King’s Cross Station where the main characters go to board the train. The students would run through a mystical wall with their parents to the magic side to board the train on Platform 9 ¾ with their trolleys . On the platform in the station the children would say good bye to their parents and board the train to Hogwarts which was one of the settings in the

During the speech Rowling states “It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default”. This quote means that in life a person needs to be able to make mistakes in order to learn from them and grow. By making mistakes an individual can discover aspects about their character that they did not know before. Failure can teach one lessons such as