英语名人堂：J.K.罗琳

J.K.罗琳（J.K. Rowling），1965年7月31日出生于英国格温特郡，毕业于英国埃克塞特大学，英国作家。

1989年，24岁的罗琳有了创作哈利·波特的念头。1997年6月，推出哈利·波特系列第一本《哈利·波特与魔法石》。随后，罗琳又分别于1998年与1999年创作了《哈利·波特与密室》和《哈利·波特与阿兹卡班的囚徒》。2001年，美国华纳兄弟电影公司决定将小说的第一部《哈利·波特与魔法石》搬上银幕。2003年6月，她再创作出第五部作品《哈利·波特与凤凰社》。2004年，罗琳荣登《福布斯》富人排行榜，她的身价达到10亿美元。2005年7月推出了第六部《哈利·波特与混血王子》，2007年7月推出终结篇《哈利·波特与死亡圣器》。截至2008年，《哈利·波特》系列7本小说被翻译成67种文字在全球发行4亿册。2010年，哈利·波特电影系列的完结篇《哈利·波特与死亡圣器》拍摄完成。

2014年12月上旬，罗琳在邮件中公布，2014年圣诞期间从2014月12日起，她在格林威治时间每天下午13时，通过Pottermore发布1个新的“哈利·波特”系列故事的小故事，共有12个。[1-2] 

 

J.K. Rowling is the pen name she uses as a writer. The J is for Joanne, her real first name, but she prefers to be called Jo. Apparently¹, people only call her Joanne when they’re angry with her. The K is made up. Her publisher asked her to write using a name with two initials², but she didn’t have a middle name.

 

Jo did a few different things before she struck upon the idea of writing children’s books. She worked as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International and as an English teacher in Portugal. The idea for the Harry³ Potter novels came from nowhere while she was on a train to London. She said, “The characters and situations came flooding into my head”.

 

Seven Potter novels later and Rowling is one of the richest women in the world. In fact, she is the first novelist ever to become a billionaire from writing. Her rags to riches story is a fantasy story in itself. She was on government handouts⁴ while writing her first novel. Her last four books broke records for the fastest sellers in literary⁵ history.

 

Today she devotes much of her time to many charitable causes. She famously demanded that Coca-Cola donate $18 million to the Reading is Fundamental charity if it wanted a tie-up with the Potter movies. The future? In March 2008, she said: "I will continue writing for children because that's what I enjoy".

1 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

2 initials   

n.首字母，姓名

参考例句：

• a glass tankard with his initials etched on it 刻有他姓名首字母的玻璃大酒杯
• All the towels were personalized with their initials. 所有毛巾上都标有物主姓名的首字母。

3 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

4 handouts   

救济品( handout的名词复数 )； 施舍物； 印刷品； 讲义

参考例句：

• Soldiers oversee the food handouts. 士兵们看管着救济食品。
• Even after losing his job, he was too proud to accept handouts. 甚至在失去工作后，他仍然很骄傲，不愿接受施舍。

5 literary   

adj.文学（上）的

参考例句：

• Literary works of this kind are well received by the masses.这样的文学作品很受群众欢迎。
• The book was favourably noticed in literary magazines.这本书在文学杂志上得到好评。