A Brief History
On June 26, 1997, the first of the Harry Potter series of novels by JK Rowling was published in Britain. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was the first of what have been seven novels so far, featuring the young title wizard and his friends in their schooling and other adventures.
Digging Deeper
Not only have the books sold over 600 million copies, eight feature films starring the characters have also been made, pulling in a staggering $7.7 billion at the box office.
Obviously, Ms. Rowling has profited greatly from the success of her iconic creation, and is wealthy as a result, reputedly a “billionaire,” although she claims otherwise due to having donated so much money to charities.
Despite her success and generally quite liberal view of politics, Rowling has become the center of controversy over her alleged “transphobism.” While claiming not to be anti-trans gender, Rowling says she is instead supporting biological women.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Fame Life Bios. J.K. Rowling: A Short Unauthorized Biography. Fame Life Bios, 2022.
Nel, Phillip. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Novels: A Reader’s Guide. Continuum, 2001.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Karen Roe from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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