- Was inspired to create the character of Hagrid after overhearing a muscular biker worry that the petunias he cared for were not doing very well.
- When the first "Harry Potter" novel was published, the publisher asked her to use initials rather than her first name, because boys would be biased against a book written by a woman. Since she only had one given name, they then asked her to make up another initial; she took "K." from her favorite grandmother, Kathleen.
- Is the first author billionaire, according to Forbes magazine (2006).
- After spending six years writing the first installment of her "Harry Potter" novels, Rowling was rejected by nine publishers before London's Bloomsbury Publishing signed her on.
- Finished writing the final novel in the fantasy franchise three weeks ago - and marked the occasion by leaving graffiti in a Scottish hotel. Eagle-eyed guests at the five-star Balmoral Hotel spotted a line from the best-selling author scrawled in black pen on the back of a marble bust in a room Rowling occupied. She wrote, "J.K. Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on January 11, 2007.".
- Based Hermione on herself.
- Character names in her novels are often clues to their identities or secrets. For example, Professor Remus Lupin is a werewolf. According to myth, Romulus and Remus were the founders of Rome and were raised by wolves. His last name, Lupin, is derived from the Latin lupus, for wolf, and the English adjective lupine, meaning wolf-like. Lupin was converted into a werewolf by Fenrir Greyback, whose name is taken from Fenrir, the monstrous wolf son of Loki in Norse mythology. (His alias, Fenrisulfr, was the basis for Fenris Ulf, the American name for Maugrim in C.S. Lewis's "Chronciles of Narnia".) Sirius Black, who turns into a black dog, is named for the star Sirius, which can be found in the constellation Canis Major - the big dog.
- Claims her first audience for the "Harry Potter" novels was her daughter, to whom she would read parts of the story that she wrote as a bedtime story.
- The fifth novel in the Harry Potter series, entitled "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", was published on June 21, 2003. It was approximately 896 pages long, containing 38 chapters and over 255,000 words, making it her longest "Harry Potter" novel yet. The first U.S. printing was 8.5 million copies, an American publishing record.
- Announced that she is considering writing another "Harry Potter" novel. (October 2010)
- In 2003, unauthorized Chinese-language "sequels" to the "Harry Potter" series appeared for sale in the People's Republic of China. These poorly-written novels, by Chinese ghost writers, contain characters from the works of other authors, including Gandalf from J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" and the title character from L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz". Rowling's lawyers successfully took legal action against the publishers, who were forced to pay damages.
- The day she signed her contract for the first "Harry Potter" novel, the publishing representative told her she would not make any money selling children's books.
- She writes most of her novels in longhand, rather than with a computer.
- Originally wrote the "Harry Potter" novels to pay off her gas bills while living in a tiny flat with her baby daughter.
- Based the character Gilderoy Lockhart on someone she knew and admits that she actually had to tone down his personality to make it more believable.
- To date (Summer 2011), she's the best-selling author in the history of literature. She's also the first author to become a billionaire from writing novels.
- Was almost barred from boarding a plane from the United States to the United Kingdom when airport security personnel demanded that her manuscript for her final book be screened or placed in her checked luggage. Rowling refused to give up the manuscript, which was bound with rubber bands.
- She secretly published a crime novel, "The Cuckoo's Calling", under the pseudonym of "first-time author" Robert Galbraith, so it would be given unbiased reviews that were independent of her reputation as author of the Harry Potter novels and "The Casual Vacancy".
- Whilst at Exeter University she had little money so, for friends' birthdays, she wrote them personal little stories.
- Although she incorporates characteristics of people she knows into "Harry Potter" characters, she says that the character Gilderoy Lockhart is the only character she purposely based on someone she knew. She would not say who she based the character on, only that it was not her ex-husband, and that whoever it was is probably so ignorant and so narcissistic, that he is probably claiming either to be the basis for Albus Dumbledore, or the real author of the "Harry Potter" novels.
- Is a huge fan of Monty Python and claims to put some of their humor into her novels. Two apparent references to the "Monty Python" sketch "Crunchy Frog" can be found in her "Harry Potter" novels: two of the sweets are a chocolate frog, and a cockroach cluster. "Monty Python" member John Cleese appears in the movies.
- Her Harry Potter novels have appealed to both children and adults. To help attract both audiences, her British hardcover publisher actually releases each of the novels with two different dust jackets. One features a realistic picture or photograph of an element of the story, designed to appeal to adults. The other features a comic-book like illustration of a scene from the story, designed to appeal to children.
- (November 11, 2010) During the course of a brief interview in London's West End just prior to the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), she revealed that, of all the movie adaptations of her novels, this was her all-time and personal favorite.
- Mother Anne died of multiple sclerosis before ever having had the opportunity to enjoy the monumental success of daughter Joanne's Harry Potter novels and movies. In honor of her memory and the circumstances of her death, Joanne contributed £10m to the "Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic" at Edinburgh University, Scotland.
- On July 7, 2004, she received an honorary degree from Edinburgh University, in recognition of the Potter books and her outstanding contribution to children's literature.
- Was #2 on the 'Celebrity Forbes List: Who Made Bank?' of 2006, making her the second richest woman behind Oprah Winfrey.
- Gave birth to her first child at age 27, a daughter Jessica Isabel Rowling-Arantes on July 27, 1993. Child's father is her first husband, Jorge Arantes.
- Stephen King reviewed most of her novels for the New York Times Review of Books.
- Gave birth to her second child at age 37, a son David Gordon Rowling-Murray on March 24, 2003. Child's father is her second husband, Neil Murray.
- It should not be surprising that Stephen King is one of her biggest fans. Not only are they both best-selling authors of supernatural stories, they were also both schoolteachers before becoming successful writers.
- In 2002, she was sued for plagiarism in the District Court of the Southern District of New York by Pennsylvania-based author Nancy Stouffer, who claimed that J.K. Rowling had lifted ideas from her novel "The Legend of Rah and Muggles" (1984), which includes a character called Larry Potter. However, the case against J.K. Rowling was dismissed on September 19, 2002, when the judged ruled that Ms. Stouffer had lied to the court and doctored evidence to support her claims.
- Severus Snape is believed to have been based on John Lawrence Nettleship, a Chemistry teacher at Wyedean School in Gloucestershire. Rowling and her mother were both students of his.
- Her novel, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", was the top-selling novel of 2000, with 7 million hardcovers sold.
- She was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2000 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to literature and received it from one of her fans, King Charles III, the Prince of Wales.
- As of November 2002, the year and month of the second "Harry Potter" movie (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)) being released, her franchise of books have currently sold over 175,000,000 copies and printed in over 200 languages to become the biggest and fastest selling novels ever.
- Gave birth to her third child at age 39, a daughter Mackenzie Jean Rowling-Murray on January 23, 2005. Child's father is her second husband, Neil Murray.
- Her hero is Robert F. Kennedy. Like her hero, she currently resides in a castle.
- Owns two properties in the Perthshire and Edinburgh areas of Scotland. In 2003, she hired a former SAS officer as her bodyguard to patrol her Perth home and protect her family.
- In the special double issue of Time magazine (December 31, 2007), she was a runner-up at #3 as "Person of the Year" after political leaders Vladimir Putin #1 and Al Gore #2.
- The 2009 Sunday Times List estimated her net worth at $817 million.
- On December 21, 2006, she announced that the last "Harry Potter" novel will be titled "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".
- Casting an actor to play Harry Potter was the biggest challenge; they saw 5000 auditions and none of them felt right. Director Chris Columbus saw Daniel Radcliffe in David Copperfield (1999) and showed it to the casting director and said Radcliffe was the one and that he was amazing. But she said they wouldn't get him because his parents want him to focus on his schoolwork and not acting, as well as all the attention he'd get. So they interviewed Harry Potter's of different nationalities all over the world and still hadn't found him. She got frustrated with Columbus because he had his heart set on Radcliffe. By sheer coincidence, the producer and screenwriter of Philisopher's Stone went the theatre and in the front row was Radcliffe with his father, so they talked and slowly persuaded him to cast Radcliffe.
- Ranked #14 in the 2008 Telegraph's list "the 100 most powerful people in British culture".
- Is one of only two contemporary authors to have a novel spend more than a year on both the New York Times hardcover and paperback best-seller lists, the other author being Nicholas Sparks.
- Is a huge fan of the rock band The Smiths, and in 2003, she appeared on the Channel Four documentary The Importance of Being Morrissey (2002).
- On April 3, 2003, she and Time Warner successfully sued Dutch publishing company Byblos in the Amsterdam High Court. This prevented Byblos from publishing Russian author Dmitry Yemets' novel "The Magic Double Bass", which features girl wizard Tanya Grotter. It was deemed to plagiarize Rowling's novel "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" and to infringe upon her copyright.
- With earnings of £560m, Rowling ranked #148 of the 1,000 richest people in the UK's The Sunday Times "Rich List" annual magazine supplement (2012).
- Director David Yates and writer Steve Kloves have both worked on adaptations of her Harry Potter novels; working together on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011). Their collaboration has been so fruitful that their next project together is The Stand (2020). This will be based on the novel by Stephen King, who is one of Rowling's biggest American fans.
- One of her favorite movies is The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), which was written and directed by "Harry Potter" screenwriter Steve Kloves.
- Forbes magazine estimated her earnings for the year to be $32 million (2007).
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content