'''J.K. Rowling''' was born in the [[United Kingdom]] and is the [[author]] of the popular ''[[Harry Potter]]'' book series. In 2008, Rowling gave the commencement address at [[Harvard University]]. <ref>[http://harvardmagazine.com/go/jkrowling.html The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination], ''Harvard Magazine, June 5, 2008</ref>
== History ==
J. K. Rowling was born in a scrapyard in [[Bristol]], the seventh child in what eventually became a fifteen child [[family]]. From an early age, she demonstrated a [[talent]] for writing and wordplay, talents that were of little use to her as she was expected to scavenge for old [[Cornwall|tin]] cans and tyres by the villainous scrapyard owner, a Mr. Henry Harper Collins. Protests by her family that she would be more efficient if she were able to selectively collect only the ''good'' tin cans were ignored. However, she was able to teach herself to [[read]] from the ingredients and [[nutrition]] information on the labels, and managed to convince a local high [[school]] to accept her, based on the quality of her humourous short story ''Red Kidney Beans in [[Sugar]]ed, Salted [[Water]]''.
At the age of seventeen, Rowling discovered that she had been adopted and was really the secret love child of [[C.S Lewis]] and J.R.R.R.R.R.R Tolkien. With this discovery she realised that she was indeed destined to write fantasy novels and also to stop using her first name and replace it pretentious sounding initials instead.
In 2007 she donated 7 hand-written books on Harry Potter to friends, insisting that they never be sold as they are unique. All her friends treasured their books until Rowling decided to order a massive print-run of each book on the market, thus upsetting all her friends.
She later went on to get a Desmond in [[French]] and Classics from Exeter [[University]], which just goes to show that a [[Major_Award|Desmond]] isn't the career crippler that everybody says it is.
==References==
