Rowling book raises millions
14/12/2007
The only copy of a hand-written book by Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling, to go on sale fetched almost $4 million at auction yesterday.
Sotheby's in London eventually brought the hammer down on a bid of $3.98 million for the volume called 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard', bound in soft Moroccan leather with silver mounts.
The winning bid was from a London book dealer, Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, with some media sources, including Bloomberg, claiming that it was bidding on behalf of online bookseller Amazon.
An ancient book about a bard called Beedle comes into the plot of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows', Ms Rowling's seventh and last about the teenage wizard. When she had finished writing the last book, she decided to put together a real version of 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard'.
She made seven copies in all, and gave six to friends who had helped her complete her ten years' work on the Harry Potter series, which has so far sold almost 400 million books in 65 languages.
The writer decided to let the seventh book go for auction, with the proceeds going to a children's charity she has set up. For this reason, Sotheby's agreed not to take a fee.
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