The “Good Morning America” news program will feature a special preview and discussion of “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” on Monday morning, November 26. As we first told you earlier this week, the handwritten book by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling will be on display here in New York at Sotheby’s auction house starting Monday November 26 as well. The manuscript will later be on display in London, England starting December 7 before it goes up for the charity auction on December 13. The GMA talk show that will preview this book is broadcast on the ABC television network, starting at 7am on Monday. If anyone can capture video, please send it in!
UPDATE: As promised, the morning show did preview the book, with the news anchor reading a short excerpt from the “Tales of Beedle the Bard.” These few sentences involved a bit where three brothers create a bridge, and it ended as they meet a mysterious hooded figure. We hope to have video of this, and will update with more when we can.
On a related note, earlier it was reported that estimates on the final sale price of the “Beedle the Bard” book will reach a “record 50,000 pounds ($103,000).” Now, naturally the bookies in the UK have weighed in, claiming this amount is too low for this rare handwritten manuscript. The Economist reports today that one bookmaker “quotes a sale price of £26,000 to £50,000 at 50-1 against—long odds indeed. They indicate the way they are thinking the sale will go by quoting 10-1 against a price of £226,000 to £250,000. Favourite at the moment, priced at 7-2, is a selling price of more than £500,000.”
A reminder that all proceeds from the sale of a preview catalog (available via this link) and the auction of this special “Tales of Beedle the Bard” book will benefit The Children’s Voice charity. You can also read a detailed report from Sotheby’s and JKR, here as well as Melissa’s exclusive preview of the book, here.
This is cool and everything and I’m looking forward to it, but it’s still not as exciting with previews of something on which you’ll never get your hands on the actual thing… :) Oh well, still cool.
Oh, to be a really rich Philathropist Potter fan! I can hardly wait for my preview copy to arrive! I love to live close enough to NYC to catch a glimpse!
Posted by Alison aka NobleBirth Descending on November 24, 2007, 08:26 PM
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I can’t wait, either! I know I’ll never see the book, except by the Catalog, but it will be worth it to see it benefit the Charity! Good luck! I wish I lived in New York! :<
Posted by Confederate Lady on November 24, 2007, 08:28 PM
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I wish she would do something like the box set of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with the “Tales of Beedle the Bard”. Twenty percent of retail sales went to Comic Relief.
In the UK it was more like 80% that went to Comic relief. But I am not convinced Beedle the Bard will be published as a book in its own right (at only 5,500 words it isn’t really long enough), but it might be part of the long rumoured encyclopedia Jo said she would probably write at some point.
A brief comment on odds: Just because the 500k+ bet is the favourite it doesn’t mean William Hill expect the book to make this much because this covers many more prices than the other odds which cover 25k price ranges. Within these 25k price ranges, they given the best odds for prices between 251k and 325k. So the bookmakers are actually expecting a price of something like 300,000 pounds (about $600,000).
Do we know for sure we’ll never get to read this book? Or will they print it eventually, with regular type. I mean, these special copies will still be special because they’ll be first and they’ll be handwritten by the author. I sure hope they will publish this more widely. I really, REALLY want to read it.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll have my DVR recording tomorrow at 7.
It is unclear. There have been reports to that effect but that just might be misinterpretation of what we do know – that Jo retains her copyright and thus no-one else can publish the text even if they buy the book for auction.
I should add, my personal opinion is that we will get to find out what the stories are eventually, but there is no guarantee that this will be the case.
One thing’s for sure though, it would be hard to publish anything that only has 5k words, if that part is true. It would have to include all of JK’s illustrations. Although I’m pretty sure it’s also hard to stop 5k words from spreading fast in the internet.
Wouldn’t it be great if Evanna Lynch bought the book? I have no idea if she makes enough from the movies to buy it, but I think that would be pretty cool if she did buy it.
chuckle, Fossil….only if we get an audio of her reading the stories!
just weeks before the OotP is available in the US, and less than a year before we get HBP…..
Mars and Roonwit, that’s why i’ve been suggesting the (why, oh why can’t i remember the right word! i have had such a brain fart on this!) “photostatic” copy idea. Roonwit’s suggestion of inclusion in the encyclopedia also makes a lot of sense.
"So, Granger, I'll have five [points] from you for being rude about our new headmistress... Macmillan, five for contradicting me... Five because I don't like you, Potter... Weasley, your shirt's untucked, so I'll have another five for that... Oh yeah, I f
This is cool and everything and I’m looking forward to it, but it’s still not as exciting with previews of something on which you’ll never get your hands on the actual thing… :) Oh well, still cool.