What exactly is a “cult author”? Not someone who writes about cults, certainly, but rather a writer who had (either during his lifetime or posthumously) gathered a cult following – squadrons of rabid fans re-reading his or her books over and over and quoting them to anyone who’s willing to listen.
It’s tricky to define exactly what makes a cult book, but chances are you’ll know when you read one. It’s often something obscure, because our society is obsessed with the strange and quirky. A cult author often comes at ya from the fringes of society, they write about the subcultures, about the downtrodden, about the underground. They represent that world you’d kinda like to inhabit, but are often too scared to do so. And often enough, they become the fascination of a lifetime.
In this new @adsactly series, we’ll be taking a look at several “cult authors” who mesmerize audiences well after their deaths.
And today, we take a look at immensely popular British author, JK Rowling. I would say it’s probably impossible to have lived in this modern world of ours and not have heard about the Harry Potter. Many, like myself, grew up with the books and interestingly, many today (both children and adults) show a huge interest in the wizardly world of the series.
So, considering the huge influence she’s had on young people today as well as on the literary world, I think we must have an episode dedicated to her.
An early family photo src
Even though today Joanne Rowling is one of the richest and most well-known authors worldwide, her life has been far from easy. According to Rowling, she always knew she wanted to be a writer, ever since she was a very little girl and wrote stories about magical talking animals, which she then read to her younger sister, Dianne.
But Rowling’s youth was not a happy one. Little seems to be known about her actual childhood years, but one thing we do know is that her teenage years were filled with misery (a huge inspiration for Harry Potter’s horribly sad home life). Her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when Rowling was fifteen, which led to a very tense relationship with her father and a difficult situation inside the home. Her mother would die ten years later, when young Rowling would be in the process of writing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (the first book in the series). Of course, her mother’s death hugely influenced the book and that’s why The Philosopher’s Stone focuses more on Harry Potter’s feelings of loss toward his murdered parents. It’s a reflection of Rowling’s own state of mind.
However, the problems were just beginning for Rowling. Soon after her mother’s death and with her first novel still unfinished, she moved to Portugal to teach English. Here, she continued work on Harry Potter and met Portuguese journalist Jorge Arantes, whom she would soon marry. Sadly, her marital bliss was to be short-lived. Rowling was a domestic abuse victim and was hugely unhappy. In 1993, she gave birth to a daughter, Jessica, after suffering a miscarriage earlier in the marriage. Soon after Jessica was born, she separated from her husband and moved back to the UK.
Rowling wrote most of The Philosopher's stone in coffee shops, because her baby would often fall asleep on walks and this is when she could write src
It was during this period in her life that Rowling grew depressed – her marriage had failed, she had no job to speak of and her dream of being a published writer seemed to be failing as well. Her bout of depression inspired the creatures known as Dementors, in her Harry Potter books (dark creatures who suck the life out of people).
While in the UK, she lived on benefits and struggled with poverty. However, while on benefits, she did manage to finish the first Harry Potter novel (while raising a little girl on her own, mind) and soon, her luck would change.
But not yet. After finishing The Philosopher’s Stone, she took a teacher training course at Edinburgh University and started on the long road to publishing. Finding a literary agent was fairly easy, but finding someone to actually publish the book was not. Rowling submitted her novel to twelve different publishing houses and got rejected by all of them.
The story of how she actually got published has, in time, become a sort of myth, especially in the writer world. Apparently, she got a publishing deal after Bloomsbury editor Barry Cunningham asked his eight year old daughter to review for him the first chapter of Harry Potter. The little girl loved it and immediately demanded she read the rest of the book, and so, Rowling got her publishing deal.
And as far as Harry Potter is concerned, the rest is history. The series continued for six more novels to critical success. Rowling won the Smarties Award three years running and would’ve probably kept on winning, if she hadn’t withdrawn her fourth book from the contest, so as to give others a fair chance.
So, JK Rowling got the happy end she deserved, both professionally and on a personal level. In 2001, she married Scottish doctor Neil Murray, with whom she is still married to this day. They have two children.
What I find interesting with Rowling, as with many other authors, is that her personal life is a story in its own right, you know? Not just that you can follow the IRL influences that would eventually lead to book characters and situations, but an actually fascinating story in its own right. That’s marvelous, to me.
Oh, one more interesting fact before we move on to the legacy part of the post – her name is not actually JK Rowling. Well, it’s Joanne Rowling, originally, but her publisher thought (probably correctly) that young boys (the main intended audience for HP) wouldn’t be interested in a book written by a woman, so they asked her to choose a pen-name and she chose JK Rowling. The ‘K’ stands for Kathleen, which was her grandmother’s name.
Legacy
JK Rowling seems to be one of the very few cases where we can actually talk about a legacy, while she is still alive (and quite young, she’s in her early fifties). But honestly, if you look at all the YA (Young Adult) books in print today, you can clearly see Rowling’s influence, which I suppose makes sense, because Harry Potter was a revolutionary book in its day.
And over the past twenty years, writers have been drawing upon (and essentially trying to copy) this story about a secret society of wizards hidden in plain sight. A book series hugely influenced by the Harry Potter series is the Divergent series, which has become pretty popular in its own right. As is Rick Riordan’s series Percy Jackson. As is Chris Paolini’s terribly successful Eragon series. Really, I think it would be quite impossible to name every book inspired by Rowling, but if you look at most books popular today, there are certain magic themes there, the ‘chosen one’, close knit group of friends, young unlikely hero against evil forces – all these, while not Rowling’s invention in themselves, are most probably her influence.
Because given the huge success her books enjoyed (as well as the fact they’re really good books), who wouldn’t want to copy them, you know?
And then, there’s the regular people like you and me, whose lives Rowling touched and made better. There are thousands of people with Harry Potter tattoos, thousands of people who’ve found the strength to go through a difficult time because of these books.
So, are you a Harry Potter fan? What's your favorite book/movie?
Authored by @honeydue
References: Wiki Insider JKRowling.com
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As a professor of literature, I must say that JK Rowling achieved what many authors have failed to achieve: that young people read their works. Teenagers are very demanding readers, and it seems that they have been fascinated not only by the literary work but also by the films. When we read the whole story behind Rowling and his most successful Harry Potter, we will find many things that tell us about this woman's effort and talent. Without a doubt, JK Rowling has been a literary phenomenon! With it, bestsellers and films based on those stories have become a success. Thanks for this post, @honeydue
Excelente, gracias por la información
The best book I read is: Treasure Island written by Robert Louis Stevenson, a story I loved a lot and read many times.
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This was a very interesting reads, it contains info I already knew about Harry Potter author but also things I didn't know about (she married twice.) You're right, there are many books influenced by her.
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I had never thought in J.K. Rowling as a cult author, but reading this post has made realize it's true: she's one of them. The influence of her HP books has been huge and she keeps adding readers to her work every day. Thumbs up for an unexpected but well thought cult author. Thanks for sharing.
Surely J.K. Rowling must be an author followed by a select group of readers. Her influence is undeniable in the world of recent fantasy narrative, especially because of the rebound of cinema. But it should not be forgotten that she is the heir to a tradition in which, in addition to the marvellous tales (the so-called "fairy tales"), J. R. Tolkien stands out in a capital way. Thanks for your post, @honeydue. Greetings.
Gracias por aclarar lo que es un autor de culto. Interesante esta biografía que usaste para completar el tema, por lo actual y además por ser una escritora muy creativa cuyos libros tienen tantos seguidores en el mundo.