英語名人堂：J.K.羅琳
1989年，24歲的羅琳有了創(chuàng)作哈利·波特的念頭。1997年6月，推出哈利·波特系列第一本《哈利·波特與魔法石》。隨后，羅琳又分別于1998年與1999年創(chuàng)作了《哈利·波特與密室》和《哈利·波特與阿茲卡班的囚徒》。2001年，美國華納兄弟電影公司決定將小說的第一部《哈利·波特與魔法石》搬上銀幕。2003年6月，她再創(chuàng)作出第五部作品《哈利·波特與鳳凰社》。2004年，羅琳榮登《福布斯》富人排行榜，她的身價達(dá)到10億美元。2005年7月推出了第六部《哈利·波特與混血王子》，2007年7月推出終結(jié)篇《哈利·波特與死亡圣器》。截至2008年，《哈利·波特》系列7本小說被翻譯成67種文字在全球發(fā)行4億冊。2010年，哈利·波特電影系列的完結(jié)篇《哈利·波特與死亡圣器》拍攝完成。
2014年12月上旬，羅琳在郵件中公布，2014年圣誕期間從2014月12日起，她在格林威治時間每天下午13時，通過Pottermore發(fā)布1個新的“哈利·波特”系列故事的小故事，共有12個。[1-2]
J.K. Rowling is the pen name she uses as a writer. The J is for Joanne, her real first name, but she prefers to be called Jo. Apparently, people only call her Joanne when they’re angry with her. The K is made up. Her publisher asked her to write using a name with two initials, but she didn’t have a middle name.
Jo did a few different things before she struck upon the idea of writing children’s books. She worked as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International and as an English teacher in Portugal. The idea for the Harry Potter novels came from nowhere while she was on a train to London. She said, “The characters and situations came flooding into my head”.
Seven Potter novels later and Rowling is one of the richest women in the world. In fact, she is the first novelist ever to become a billionaire from writing. Her rags to riches story is a fantasy story in itself. She was on government handouts while writing her first novel. Her last four books broke records for the fastest sellers in literary history.
Today she devotes much of her time to many charitable causes. She famously demanded that Coca-Cola donate $18 million to the Reading is Fundamental charity if it wanted a tie-up with the Potter movies. The future? In March 2008, she said: "I will continue writing for children because that's what I enjoy".
