Everyone lives through their own unique journey in life. Whether it be pursuing a specific career or just living life at ease. Joanne Rowling, commonly referred to as J.K. Rowling, has traveled an amazing journey in the process of creating her magical series of Harry Potter. However, fame wasn’t just handed to her. The success of J.K. Rowling was purely derived from hard, persistent effort.


In her early years, Jo grew up in Gloucestershire, England. Her family had little money to spare and lived to a strict budget. Regardless, she still went to school where she found herself extremely interested in fantasy and fiction readings. In fact, the memorable personalities of people in her surrounding life were found in the characters of her books. Her elderly headmaster in primary school, for example, was the main influence of Albus Dumbledore. As Joanne grew older, she only became more interested in writing. It was on her four hour delayed train trip to London, where the adventurous thoughts of a boy attending wizard school were first thought of. Only a few months later, in December of 1990, Jo’s mother had died after a long, tedious battle of multiple sclerosis. Feeling extreme sorrow, the feelings of death were incorporated into her writing, primarily in the first book. In hopes of starting over, she moved to Portugal and taught English as a foreign language. She married Jorge Arantes in October of 1992 and later gave birth to a baby girl, Jessica. After Jo and her husband divorced nearly four months after their child was born, she and her daughter moved to Scotland. Not long after, Rowling was diagnosed with clinical depression, with few attempts of suicide. From the dark thoughts she suffered from, came the idea of fearful dementors. Rowling then decided to go back to school to continue her education in writing, being so connected to her new series. While supporting a young child, attending college, and writing a novel, Jo found herself living solely off of welfare.


Joanne released the beginning book of the series with the original title, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, in1995. After the first reader’s enthusiastic opinion of the book, a publisher was immediately requested. Unfortunately, all of the twelve publishers the book was submitted to were rejected. Finally Editor Barry Cunningham from Bloomsbury fancied the novel so greatly he gave Rowling a £1,500 reward, and demanded it to be published. She was then later granted £8,000 to continue the series of writing. Jo was so overwhelmed with joy, she stated she “nearly died!” The wealth, fame, and fanatic rage continued on as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was published in 1998, The Prisoner of Azkaban in 1999, and The Goblet of Fire in 2000. A three year period was elapsed between the fourth and fifth books causing Harry Potter fans to explode with excitement when Order of the Phoenix was released in 2003. The Half-Blood Prince was released after another three year block in 2006, and finally the series’ last book, The Deathly Hallows in 2007. The final book was so popular, it became the fastest selling book in history, selling eleven million copies entirely throughout the first day.


“Writing these books is really where I turned my life around completely,” Stated Rowling after the final release. This goes to show that writing is a powerful skill. It goes beneath the average face to face conversation, and has a way of capturing unseen emotion lurking within the pages. J.K. Rowling is not only an admirable author, but a person who has overcome great difficulties her life.