J K Rowling

British writer of the immensely popular series of "Harry Potter" books. In three short years from her first book in 1997 about an 11-year-old schoolboy wizard, Rowlings has had a fantastic success. Her first three books have sold an amazing 30 million copies and have been translated into 31 languages. She has gone from being a penniless single mom to a famous author worth more than $20 million. Rowland married a journalist in 1992, had a baby daughter Jessica in 1993, and divorced a year later. Reduced to living on welfare with an infant, she wrote "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Published in 1997, the book caused a sensation and led to "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." Her fourth book, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," was released in July 2000 to millions of waiting hands, young and old. On 11/09/2001, the fervently awaited movie of Harry Potter opened in the U.S. By now fabulously wealthy, Rowlings, who had written the first book in dire poverty, bought Killiechassie House in Scotland, built in 1865. The wildly successful author married Dr. Neil Murray, an anesthetist, on 12/26/2001, at their house in Perthshire, attended only by immediate family. They had met in Edinburgh a little more than a year ago. On March 23, 2003, she and Neil Murray welcomed their son David into the world. The well-known author gave birth to their second child, her third, a girl named Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray, in the evening of January 23, 2005 in Edinburgh. Link to Wikipedia biography Link to Astrodienst discussion forum