Beedle the Bard: Who knew you’d fetch so much?
This deserves its own news post.
Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) — J.K. Rowling’s handwritten book of fairy tales sold for 1.95 million pounds ($3.98 million) at a London charity sale.
Sotheby’s top estimate for “The Tales of Beedle the Bard,” one of seven copies made after Rowling finished her last Harry Potter book, was 50,000 pounds. The money will go to the Children’s Voice, a charity co-founded by Rowling and Emma Nicholson, a member of the U.K. House of Lords.
The buyer was Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, an old-master dealership with many collector clients, Sotheby’s said.
Wow. Wow, wow, wow.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Man. That’s amazing.
(Not to be totally selfish… but is anyone else thinking it’s kind of unfair that most normal fans will probably never get to read this?)
December 13th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Wow, I knew it would go for higher than the estimate but that is a huge amount
I agree with Michal that it does seem a little unfair that her fans that have carried her through the series and made her fortune won’t get to read it. (Does that sound bitter?)
Michal - Did we ever hear back from Ms Rowling re our compliments book?
December 13th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Mizz Andy- I’ll field that one. Michal did a tremendous job putting together the thank you book and we were all so thankful that so many people contributed.
That having been said, a certain member of HP Progs who shall remain nameless (hint: not me) never got his/her thank you in and Michal didn’t want to send it with out his/her contribution since he/she started the whole hpprogs thing.
Although, this WAS discussed in episode 61 (which will be out later today) and hopefully will be remedied very very very soon. In the meantime, feel free to Spam the person with comments about his/her tardiness.
December 13th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
That is funny.
December 13th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Ok now I have a bird talking to me on my shoulder.
December 13th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
you gotta admit Michal that if she can get 4 MILLION for just one copy of a rare book - it is really much less of a hassle than publishing a few hundred thousand copies for us devoted fans sold at 10 bucks apiece
December 13th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Thanks Penny for the explanation
Just found on another site that Amazon.com was actually the purchaser of the book and intends on travelling it around schools and reviewing the stories for us.
December 14th, 2007 at 12:10 am
Shimon- I don’t resent it, as she did write the books primarily as gifts and only one for charity. Still, I would like to see some printed version become available to the the general fandom. (I could be totally wring, but I also don’t think plans to mass produce the book would really have effected the auction sales– a hand-written first edition? I just don’t see it.)
April 15th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I want the beedle and the bard…
It’s totally not fair