what book inspired J.K. Rowling to create the Harry Potter series?

Question

what book inspired her to make the series and are there any books similiar to the Harry Potter book series?

Answer 1

I personally find JK Rowling very inspirational. As she rode a train across Europe it occurred to her a story consisting of seven books, one for each year of England's secondary school (grades six through twelve) of a boy that was a wizard and didn't even know it. She was a divorced mother when she wrote the first story. She quickly found an agent. but was rejected by all the mainline British publishing houses. Then a smaller publisher editor gave the first chapter to her own child to see what she thought. The child immediately clamored for more, so they bought the book. Later, when the book was marketed in the US, there was a bidding war. Scholastic won and paid her $100,000, unheard of for a children's book. It ends up Scholastic are the ones that really made out cheap!

Also, when she submitted her book to the publisher, it was her only copy (she still had her original). They told her it was OK and asked for another copy so they could let others read it. She was so poor she couldn't afford to have it photocopied, so she re typed the entire novel! And to think now that she is a BILLIONAIRE! What a ride her life has been.
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Answer 2

Well, she says that the idea just popped into her head. She has been accused of plagiarism, but no one's gonna say anything and no one knows or cares if it's true. However, similar books would be:
Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman (graphic novel)
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin (novel)
The Legend of Rah and the Muggles OR Larry Potter and his Best Friend Lilly by ? (children's books, the author sued Rowling for plagiarism)

Those are the plagiarism accusations. Other than that, just check out YA fantasy! Or go to amazon.com and look up the books, then click on "find similar items" or whatever the link is.

I checked amazon, and some of the similar items I found were Lord of the Rings by JRR TOlkein and The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. There's also Eragon, The Chronicles of Narnia, Bridge to Terabithia, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and A Series of Unfortunate Events. And you can always read all of the "Myths in Harry Potter" books and the "rumors- what will happen next" books, those are all cool.

Answer 3

I dont know if someone inspired her. But I am always thinking about the similarities between astrid lindgrens mio my mio and Harry Potter.
1. Mio is an orphan as harry
2. Mio lives be his aunt and uncle
3. Mios aunt and uncle dont tread him nice they tread him much like the dursleys tread harry
4. Mios aunt and uncle tell Mio lies about his parents death
5. suddenly Mio discovers that there is another world besides the own.
6.there is this evil knight kato and everytime someone speaks out his name the leafs keep shacking scaryly the birds get away (doesnt that remind you at Voldemort :P the same those who must not be named)
okay that was it and its much more a child book but there are these similarities and they really remind me in Harry Potter.
But if you want to read something from Astrid Lindgren I would also recomment you the Brothers Lionheart its also more for older people and soooooo.... lovely (my favourite book)
Anyway very similar to harry potter are Jenny Nimmos Children of the Red king series. Its about a boy named charlie bone who also goes to something like a wizzard school. I think she really wrote it after JK Rowlings book its so much like it, but of course not as good.

Answer 4

In response to treehugger's list of "plagerized works," The Legend of Rah and the Muggles and Larry Potter and his Best Friend Lilly were FALSE evidence. I think the "author" paid a friend who was in some publishing company to print out a copy of each book so he could sue Rowling. I don't think they even had their own copyright or whatever...

I don't think Harry Potter was inspired just by one book, but she did say that there were some aspiring authors that probably affected her writing STYLE. The biggie is Ronald Dahl, and I can sorta see the similarities between both writing styles. She mentioned a few other but I don't remember.

Answer 5

You are allowed to write it. You are allowed to post it publicly on the Internet. You are not, however, allowed to use it for any commercial purpose without permission from Joanne Rowling or someone with jurisdiction over the Harry Potter copyrights. There isn't really any way around this.

Answer 6

try "books". there is no ONE book, rather a combo of elements of others that have influenced her style. She has read many a book (just like Hermoine does) and has used bits of em to make Harry potter into the success that it is.

Answer 7

She never said, but she did say a train trip in the countryside inspired her.

Answer 8

She was influenced heavily by:

"Harry Pothead and the Sorceror's Stoned"

Answer 9

I say Duran Duran had something to do with it. "Hungry Like the Wolf"? (Lupin.)

"Dance into the fire," (Floo powder.)

"That fatal kiss is all we need," (Dementors.)

"The chance to find a phoenix for the flame," (Fawkes.)

"A view to a kill" (Various.)

I'm tellin' ya, she had to be listening to Duran Duran. It's all in the lyrics!

Answer 10

^^^another "genius" answer

why is everyone retarded