7.J.K. Rowling Was Awarded an OBE by the Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II for Her Contribution to Children's Literature

An OBE is one of the most popular honors given out by the British monarchy. There are currently five classes of the order stemming from knighthood down to an ordinary member of the British Empire. These honors are given out twice a year by the Queen as a way of marking civilian achievement. Rowling received what is called a “post-nominal” meaning, and she can sign her name as Joanne Rowling, OBE.

6.J.K. Rowling Is a Former Billionaire

J.K. Rowling was a billionaire until 2012 when a combination of charitable giving and high taxes removed her from the list. Rowling has invested and donated her money to a wide variety of both personal and global causes. In October 2013, the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic at the University of Edinburgh opened with a 10 million pound donation from J.K. Rowling, whose mother suffered from a neurodegenerative disease and died at age 45. Rowling also started a charity, which she called Lumos, a reference to her famous novels. Lumos works to prevent the systematic institutionalization of children through Europe and tries to find them caring homes. She donated all of the auction proceeds, $1.95 million, of a special edition of her book “The Tales of Beetle the Bard” to Lumos, and the following year, the book was published widely with part of the proceeds also benefiting Lumos. She also has a charitable trust called Volant which works to fight social deprivation with a focus on women and children.

5.J.K. Rowling Dreamed up the Idea for Harry Potter on a Train

J.K. Rowling first had her idea for Harry Potter while on a delayed train service from Manchester to London in 1990. On this fateful journey, she was traveling back to London on a crowded car, and she describes the idea as simply falling into her head. She remembers being the most excited she had ever been, and then realizing that she did not have a pen to write down her ideas. She was too shy to ask to borrow a pen from any of the people on the crowded coach, and so she was forced to retreat to her imagination. This particular train took four long hours, instead of the usual two hours, and Rowling sat and day dreamed about the boy she would call Harry. In her memoirs, she wonders how much of her wild idea slipped away because she was unable to write, but mostly she believes that those four hours were some of the best ideas for the books because she was able to dream and imagine without interruption. As soon as she arrived home in London, she began to write a story about a boy with black hair and spectacles.

4.Rowling Has Always Written under a Pen Name

In fact, J.K. Rowling is not her real name. She was born Joanne Rowling, but adopted the 'K', her grandmother's initial, at the advice of her publisher to help keep the book anonymous because they did not believe that a fantasy book about wizards would be accepted when written by a woman. Indeed, her first ever piece of fan mail was addressed to her as “Dear Sir.”She continues writing under pen names, and most recently she tried to publish her novel “The Cuckoo's Calling” under the name Robert Galbraith. Almost immediately, the Internet cried out and knew that Robert Galbraith had to be Joanne Rowling. Rowling has written one other book under this pen name titled “The Silk Worm.” She chose this name by combining the name of her political hero, Robert F Kennedy and her childhood fantasy name, Ella Galbraith. Writing under this name was another attempt to make her work sound as though it was written by a man, and even the editor of the book believed that Robert Galbraith was man before the true author was revealed. This time, Rowling wanted to take her writing persona away from being J.K. Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter. Rowling was revealed to the press by a friend of one her lawyers, but not before Robert Galbraith sold 8,500 copies of the books and received two offers from television production companies. Rowling notes that Galbraith's initial success, before being outed, was similar to her own at the very beginning of her career. But, sales were not what mattered to Rowling, and as she said after her identity was revealed, if all she wanted to do was sell books she would have used her own name from the start.

校对:落花生 编辑:旭旭