In Search of the Novel: Ten Novelists

J. K. Rowling

Biography

J. K. Rowling has little to say about herself. She is British. She declines most interviews. She is a single mother who began writing the first Harry Potter book to while away the time while waiting for a stalled train to be repaired. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was rejected several times by publishers before Bloomsbury Press, a small publishing house in England, decided to take a gamble and bought the publishing rights in 1997. Since then she has written six more Harry Potter books—making seven in all.

Web Sites

• Scholastic Books—Harry Potter
  The Harry Potter site from Scholastic, the U.S. publisher. Sample chapters and discussion guides for all of the books, an interview with Rowling, and other resources.
  http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/
• Harry Potter on Bloomsbury
  The Web site of Harry Potter's London publisher.
  http://harrypotter.bloomsbury.com/