Born in the summer of 1965, English author J. K. Rowling (born Joanne Rowling) is one of the most successful and well-known authors in modern history. She was born into a middle-class family in Yate, Gloucestershire. When she was four years old, her family moved to Winterbourne, Gloucestershire, where she attended St. Michael’s Church of England Primary School. They lived next to a family called Potter, and Rowling, even as a young girl, made note of the fact that she liked the name.

Her adult life was tumultuous as she suffered through the death of her beloved mother, an abusive marriage and subsequent divorce, single motherhood, and extreme financial difficulties. However, it was also during this time that she conceived the idea that would eventually become her Harry Potter series, and she began writing her first drafts of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the early 1990s. By 1995, her manuscript was complete, but she received twelve rejections before finally publishing with Bloomsbury Publishing in 1997. Her initial print run was of only 500 copies, 300 of which were distributed to libraries, making it the most rare book in the series and one of the rarest young adult novels in the world of rare books.

Much of Rowling’s difficult life was translated into her writing. Themes of loss and darkness are prevalent throughout the series, in which a young wizard, Harry Potter, develops his magical powers at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and heroically attempts to overthrow the evil and powerful Lord Voldemort. It was published in the U.S. a year later as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by Scholastic who bought the rights to publish for $105,000. Scholastic decided to change the title, fearing that the word ‘philosopher’ might intimidate children; this was a decision J.K. Rowling later regretted approving.

 

 

Between 1997 and 2000, Rowling published a new book in the series every year with The Chamber of Secrets in 1998, The Prisoner of Azkaban in 1999, and The Goblet of Fire in 2000. The fifth book in the series, The Order of The Phoenix was published in 2003, followed by The Half Blood Prince in 2005, and the seventh and final novel, The Deathly Hallows in 2007.

 

 

The first novel in the Harry Potter series and Rowling’s debut novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone follows Harry Potter, a young wizard who discovers his magical heritage on his eleventh birthday when he receives a letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The book reached the top of the New York Times list of best-selling fiction in August 1999 and stayed near the top of that list for much of 1999 and 2000. It has sold in excess of 120 million copies, making it one of the best-selling books of all time. The majority of reviews of the popular book were favorable, revering Rowling’s imagination, humor, simple, direct style and clever plot construction.

 

 

The second novel in Rowling’s acclaimed Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets follows Harry’s second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, when a series of cryptic messages appear on the walls of the schools corridors warning that the heir of Slytherin has arrived to kill all pupils who are not descended from entirely magical families. When the book was published in 1998, “…Bloomsbury was a little less cautious” than they had been upon publishing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone the previous year, “but the first printing was still minuscule, considering the demand. Estimates range between 1000 and 2000 copies… They have been notably scarce” (Smiley, 52). The film adaptation of the novel, released in 2002 and starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson became the fifth highest-grossing film to date at that time.

 

 

The third novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban won the 1999 Whitbread Children’s Book Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the 2000 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, and was short-listed for other awards, including the Hugo. The story follows Harry in his third year at Hogwarts, which starts off on bad note when he learns that the legendary and deranged murderer Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban and is determined to end Harry’s life. The film adaptation of the novel was released in 2004, grossing more than $796 million and earning critical acclaim.

 

 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the pivotal fourth novel in the seven-part tale of Harry Potter’s training as a wizard and his coming of age. “I’m relieved to report that Potter 4 is every bit as good as Potters 1 through 3 . . . The fantasy writer’s job is to conduct the willing reader from mundanity to magic. This is a feat of which only a superior imagination in capable, and Rowling posses such equipment” (Stephen King, The New York Times Book Review). It is the basis for the 2005 film starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson.

 

 

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, more than any of the four previous novels in the series, is a coming-of-age story. Harry faces the thorny transition into adulthood, when adult heroes are revealed to be fallible, and matters that seemed black-and-white suddenly come out in shades of gray. Gone is the wide-eyed innocent, the whiz kid of Sorcerer’s Stone. Here we have an adolescent who’s sometimes sullen, often confused, and always self-questioning. Confronting death again, as well as a startling prophecy, Harry ends his year at Hogwarts exhausted and pensive. “The Order of the Phoenix starts slow, gathers speed and then skateboards, with somersaults, to its furious conclusion….As Harry gets older, Rowling gets better.” (John Leonard, The New York Times). It was made into the 2007 film directed by David Yates, starring Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, alongside Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry’s best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

 

 

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince takes up the story of Harry Potter’s sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at this point in the midst of the storm of this battle of good and evil. “For her success in creating what will undoubtedly be a highly literate generation Rowling deserves great praise” (The Spectator). The film, which is the sixth instalment in the Harry Potter film series, was written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman, starring Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, alongside Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry’s best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

 

 

Released on July 21, 2007, the seventh and final novel in Rowling’s acclaimed Harry Potter Series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows shattered sales records, surpassing every record set by previous titles in the series. The book holds the Guinness World Record for most novels sold within 24 hours of release, with 8.3 million sold in the US and 2.65 million in the UK. Generally well received by critics, it won the 2008 Colorado Blue Spruce Book Award, and the American Library Association named it a “Best Book for Young Adults.” “We can’t think of anyone else who has sustained such an intricate, endlessly inventive plot over seven thick volumes and so constantly surprised us with twists, well-laid traps and Purloined Letter-style tricks. Hallows continues the tradition, both with sly feats of legerdemain and with several altogether new, unexpected elements” (Publishers Weekly). The film adaptation directed by David Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures was released in two parts: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 in November 2010 and Part 2 in July 2011.

In addition to the Harry Potter titles featured above, our collection currently includes other works by Rowling such as her adult novels written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The Cuckoo’s Calling, released in 2013, was Galbraith’s “debut” novel. This led to a series, followed by The Silkworm (2014), Career of Evil (2015), Lethal White (2018), Troubled Blood (2020), and The Ink Black Heart (2022). During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rowling published her first children’s book since her Harry Potter series, The Ickabog (2020). The book was published in free installments online in hopes of providing children on lockdown with something to read. A year later, she wrote another children’s book, The Christmas Pig (2021), which became a bestseller and received widespread critical acclaim.

 

Rowling’s Harry Potter series has sold more that 500 million copies worldwide and has been ​translated into 80 languages, ​making it the best-selling book series in history and among history’s most translated literary works.​ The last four books in the series consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books of all time, where the final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, sold roughly fifteen million copies worldwide within twenty-four hours of its release. With twelve million books printed in the first U.S. run, it also holds the record for the highest initial print run for any book in history.

Browse our complete collection of Rowling’s works here.