From welfare to one of the world's wealthiest women — the incredible rags-to-riches story of J.K. Rowling - Business Insider
In the six tumultuous years following, she would imagine an entire magical world of witches and wizards, assume the pen name J.K. Rowling, and publish “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” the first novel in the now beloved “Harry Potter” series.
Rowling has since become the UK’s best-selling living author and one of the wealthiest women in the world, but not before overcoming the hardships of being a single mother living on welfare.
Born in the southwest of England, Rowling grew up along the border of England and Wales with her mother, father, and sister.
On her website she wrote that she had always known she would be a book author. “As soon as I knew what writers were, I wanted to be one. I’ve got the perfect temperament for a writer; perfectly happy alone in a room, making things up.”
She wrote her first book (about a rabbit named Rabbit) at age six, and when her mother praised her work, she says she “stood there and thought, ‘Well, get it published then.’”
Rowling’s teenage years weren’t particularly happy, she told The New Yorker, claiming she came from a difficult family and saying her mother’s 10-year battle with multiple sclerosis took a toll on her and the family.
She describes the most traumatizing moment in her life as the day her mother died — it was New Year’s Day in 1991 when Rowling was 25. This was six months after she began writing “Harry Potter,” and she lamented that her mother never knew she was writing it. The loss of her own mother would eventually lead Rowling to make Harry Potter suffer the death of his parents.
Read more at From welfare to one of the world's wealthiest women — the incredible rags-to-riches story of J.K. Rowling - Business Insider
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