JK Rowling's Magical Story(b)

JK Rowling's Magical Story

by Brian Foden

JK Rowling has seen enormous success with her Harry Potter books, but she suffered adversity and depression before making it big.


  It was in Portugal that JK Rowling's life began to take a turn for the worse. Although she found love, got married and gave birth to a baby daughter, things soon turned sour as only about a year after her wedding, she left her abusive husband, a Portuguese journalist. In December 1993, Rowling returned to the UK with her daughter to live with her sister in Edinburgh, Scotland. Broke and unemployed, she considered herself a total failure. Forced to apply for welfare benefits as a single mother, Rowling was severely depressed to the point of having suicidal thoughts. In addition to her daughter, there was one other bright point in her life at that time. She had been working on an idea that was inspired during a train ride in 1990 about a boy wizard she named Harry Potter. She was even able to use her despair and adversity as elements in her novels, which are full of dark and serious themes set in a fantasy world.


  When Rowling arrived at her sister's home in Scotland, she had already completed the first three chapters of her Harry Potter book. She wrote the rest of the manuscript in coffee shops in Edinburgh with her daughter often sleeping beside her and finished the initial novel in 1995. Rejected by the first 12 publishers she submitted it to, the manuscript launched a series that would eventually become the best-selling book series of all time.


  Rowling's net worth is now estimated at nearly US$1 billion. Though incredibly rich now, she has never forgotten the tough times she went through and regularly donates to charities, having already given more than US$150 million of her fortune away to good causes.      



  JK.罗琳的人生是从她待在葡萄牙的时候开始走下坡。虽然她找到了爱人、结了婚并生下一个宝贝女儿,但一切却在结婚后仅仅一年的时间就变质了,她离开了身为葡萄牙新闻记者的家暴丈夫。1993 年十二月,罗琳带着女儿回到英国,和她妹妹一起住在苏格兰的爱丁堡。身无分文又没有工作的罗琳认为自己彻底失败了。她被迫申请单亲妈妈的社会福利金,她曾经严重忧郁到有自杀念头的地步。除了她的女儿之外,她当时的人生还有另外一个光明面。她当时正致力于一个她在 1990 年的一趟火车旅程上灵光一闪的点子,内容是有关她命名为哈利波特的少年巫师。她甚至能够用自己的绝望和困境作为小说中的元素,她的书中充满了幻想世界里黑暗而严肃的主题。


  当罗琳抵达她妹妹在苏格兰的家时,她已经完成了《哈利波特》书籍的前三章。她在爱丁堡的咖啡厅撰写其余的手稿,她的女儿经常在一旁沉睡着,她并于 1995 年完成了她最初的小说。她一开始投稿给十二家出版社,但通通遭到拒绝,而这篇手稿开启了一系列最终成为史上最畅销的系列丛书。


  罗琳目前的身价据估计大约为十亿美元。虽然她现在拥有惊人的财富,但她从未忘记自己经历过的艰苦日子,并定期捐款给慈善机构,她已经捐了一亿五千多万的财产来行善。

 

 

 

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JK Rowling's Magical Story(b)

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