3 .Publishing Harry Potter
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 was submitted to twelve publishers, all of which rejected it.Barry Cunningham, who ran the children's literature department at Bloomsbury Publishing, eventually bought it.Nigel Newton, who headed Bloomsbury at the time, decided to go ahead with the manuscript after his eight-year-old daughter finished one chapter and wanted to keep reading. Although Bloomsbury agreed to publish the book, one of Rowling's favourite memories was of Cunningham telling her, "You'll never make any money out of children's books, Jo."Rowling 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 500 copies. Before Chamber of Secrets was published, Rowling had received only £2,800 ($4,200) in royalties.
Philosopher's Stone introduces Harry Potter. Harry 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.In Philosopher's Stone, Harry foils Voldemort's plan to acquire an elixir of life; in Deathly Hallows, the final book, he kills Voldemort.Rowling received the news that 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 an apartment 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 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 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 was delayed and had not appeared by 2002, rumours circulated that Rowling was suffering writer's block. It was published in June 2003, selling millions of copies on the first day.Two years later, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released in July, 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 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 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, 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.
Main article: Harry Potter
Six of the seven volumes of the Harry Potter series, one for each of Harry's school years, have already been published and they have all been bestsellers.Before publishing the first volume, Bloomsbury feared that the target group of young boys might be reluctant to buy books written by a female author. They requested that Rowling use two initials, rather than reveal her first name; because she had no middle name, she chose Kathleen, her grandmother's name.The first book was an unexpectedly huge success. Combined with her earnings for the next three books, she became a billionaire. In 2001, she purchased a luxurious 19th-century mansion, Killiechassie House, on the banks of the River Tay in Perthshire, Scotland, where she married her second husband, Dr. Neil Murray, on 26 December 2001.The fifth book, titled Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was delayed by an unsuccessful plagiarism suit directed towards her by rival author Nancy Stouffer (see below). Rowling took some time off from writing at this point, because during the process of writing the fifth book she felt her workload was too heavy. She said that at one point she had considered breaking her arm to get out of writing, because the pressure on her was too much. After forcing her publishers to drop her deadline, she enjoyed three years of quiet writing, commenting that she spent some time working on something else that she might return to when she is finished with the Harry Potter series.
The Harry Potter books
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (June 26, 1997) (titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (September 8, 1999)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (July 8, 2000)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (June 21, 2003)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 16, 2005)
Quidditch Through the Ages (2001)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2001)
The last two purport to be facsimiles of books mentioned in the novels. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a textbook, while Quidditch Through the Ages is probably the most popular book in the Hogwarts library. They are complete with handwritten annotations and scribblings in the margins, and include introductions by Albus Dumbledore. All proceeds from them go to the UK Comic Relief charity. She has contributed money and support to many other charitable causes, especially research and treatment of multiple sclerosis, from which her mother died in 1990. This death heavily affected her writing, according to Rowling.
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