Context
J. K. Rowling began her career in the early 1990s,
writing on restaurant napkins and drinking cups of espresso while
her newborn baby daughter, Jessica, slept soundly at her side. Recently
divorced and living on welfare, Rowling could not afford to properly
heat her small apartment, nor could she buy a word processor, so
she instead spent her days in cafes and wrote nearly all of her
first novel by hand. The result of Rowling's work, Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, was passed over by dozens
of publishers, who each believed it to be too long, too complex,
and far too slow. Eventually, in 1996, British
publisher Bloomsbury Press bought the book, and Rowling's career
exploded almost overnight. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's
Stone set record sales, made literary history, and changed
the way children read forever. Quickly, Rowling began gathering
prestigious awards. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was
eventually named Children's Book of the Year at the 1997 British
Book Awards, and in 1998 the book was pronounced
Best Book of the Year by both Parenting magazine
and the New York Public Library and deemed “One of the Best Books
of 1998” by Publishers Weekly, School
Library Journal, and Booklist.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is
the sixth and penultimate installment in the series and widely considered
to be the darkest of the books thus far. A major character dies,
and Harry finds love, events that bring a newfound maturity to the
young wizard's world. Released two years after its predecessor, Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, fans of the series
were extremely eager to hear what awaited their beloved protagonist,
and many waited for hours at bookstores across the globe, dressed
as their favorite characters. To date, the books have sold 270 million
copies and been translated into sixty-two languages. With an estimated
fortune of $1 billion, J. K. Rowling is now
the richest woman in Britain and the most financially successful
author of all time. In its first twenty-four hours of release, Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince sold about 9 million
copies in Britain and the United States combined (6.9 million
in the United States, 2 million in Britain),
beating out Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by
a considerable margin. (In its first twenty-four hours, Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix sold only 5 million
copies in the United States.) In its opening weekend, the U.S. sales
of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince were
higher than the combined totals of the number one and number two
movies at the box office (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The
Wedding Crashers, respectively).
Still, Rowling has had to contend with considerable backlash, particularly
from Christian groups who believe the series' pagan imagery is dangerous
to their children. Since 1999, the Harry
Potter books have sat atop the American Library Association's list
of most protested books, with some American churches banning the
books altogether. The moral ambiguity of the series—there is good
magic and dark magic, but it is often unclear who is responsible
for what, and characters introduced as good are often later revealed
to be evil—is the cause of great controversy among parents and school and
religious officials. Rowling has cited her inspiration for the series
as “The idea that we could have a child who escapes from the confines
of the adult world and goes somewhere where he has power, both literally
and metaphorically.” Consequently, many of the books' supporters
argue that the idea of a child controlling his own destiny, making
profound choices, and learning to control his environment is what
frightens parents, and it is not necessarily the occult implications
that have led to the books' controversial reception. Regardless,
the Harry Potter books have been licensed for a series of successful
Warner Brothers films, the first three of which have already earned
spots on the list of the twenty highest-grossing films of all time.
In March 2001, Rowling received an OBE (Order of
the British Empire) medal of achievement from the Queen of England.
She married her second husband, Dr. Neil Murray, later that same
year. Rowling's immense success has guaranteed her a secure spot
in the literary canon.
