UPDATE: It has now been revealed that Amazon.com bought this book, and will be adding pictures and reviews of each of the fairy tales soon. The permanent link will eventually redirect to http://www.amazon.com/beedlebard. The note already contains several high-quality pictures and a video reading the note from JK Rowling inside the cover, and reveals that the book is 157 handwritten pages. Amazon.com editors are now taking questions about the tales on the site's discussion boards.
Amazon has said it won't be publishing the book unless JK Rowling decides to do so, but it will be taking the book on tour to schools and libraries so children can see it themselves. (This was posted in their message boards.)
Our previous article of today's events is below:
The auction for The Tales of Beedle the Bard, JK Rowling's original, handwritten book of wizarding fairy tales, just happened at Sotheby's in London, and the lucky winner walked away with the item for the bargain price of 1,950,000 pounds, or nearly $4 million.
In a Sotheby's release, the auction house said that this is the highest price ever paid at auction for a work by JK Rowling and indeed for any children’s book - it is also the highest price ever paid at auction for any modern literary manuscript.
It was a highly contested match between six bidders; the winner was a representative of London fine art dealer Hazlitt Gooden & Fox.
J.K. Rowling said of the sale, "I am stunned and ecstatic. This will mean so much to children in desperate need of help. It means Christmas has come early for me.”
The copy was one of seven handwritten editions and the only one to be made available for sale publicly. The other six have gone to six people instrumental to Harry since his inception. The leatherbound, handwritten tome was encrusted moonstones, as would be representative of "mothers, lovers and the power of dreams." All proceeds will benefit The Children's Voice Campaign charity, instituted by J.K. Rowling, which goes to help aid children who most need an advocate in the world.
In the release, Dr. Philip Errington, Deputy Director, Sotheby’s Books and Manuscripts department said: “Sotheby’s has been thrilled to work with JK Rowling and The Children’s Voice in selling this wonderful manuscript. This is one of the most exciting pieces of children’s literature to have passed through Sotheby’s. We have to reach back 80 years to find a comparison when we sold the manuscript of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland on behalf of the original Alice.”
In addition a set of signed Comic Relief books went for 1,125 GBP, and an original drawing of the main Harry Potter characters was sold for 34,100 GBP (or three times what was expected).
Also, a Reuters video from the reception, with glimpses of Evanna Lynch and Bonnie Wright in the crowd, may be seen here.
She could’ve just written them as she did, given them privately as very special gifts to her close friends that she wanted to remember, and donated $4 million to her charity … and then kept quiet about it!
Who the heck are we to TELL her what she should do?? To tell her how much money she should give?? this is the HEIGHT of selfishness. “if you dont make ME happy doing your good deeds then they arent as good as they could be”. My god, that just burns my britches.
There is more to giving to charity than raising money. There is also raising awareness! Every single article in every publication, and every news broadcast has mentioned her children’s charity by NAME when reporting on this auction. Do you have any idea how much MORE money that could bring in????
people: you are not entitled to everything that comes out of her pen! When she writes a Christmas card to her friends, do you think you should be privy???
I agree with Isabow, but would like to add that the general wishing for the book that’s going around is to be expected. We’re Harry Potter fans; we want to know as much canon as possible, see as many original J.K. Rowling drawings as we can. If we see J.K.R. writing something new, we want it straight away. Maybe that’s not reasonable, but that’s usually the fan response.
But, like I said, I agree that the children’s charity is more important than getting a book, however wonderful that book sounds. Roughly four million dollars can make such a difference, and I am thrilled that that money was put to such a cause. Anyone who isn’t, well, I see your point, but you need to “sort out your priorities” to quote movie-Ron. Chuckle
“I don’t think it matters that the fan base has grown since FB and QA were released because they are still on sale, and new fans can still buy them. I rather doubt that the book was brought by Emma or any other HP actor, because although they could probably pay 2 million, it would be a significant chunk of the money they have earned.”
Posted by roonwit
Roonwit, my point was that the initial run of FB&QA was published a while ago and if Tales went up for an initial sale now they would sell more because the fan base has increased. Just look at the initial run of SS compared to DH what a difference and it is because the fan base increased. Yes, you can still by a copy of FB&QA but the hype for those books is not big anymore like a new book after DH would have.
Also, it is very possible that an HP actor could have purchased it if they wanted .My comment was based on what another writer joked about Dan purchasing the book. Dan did purchase the Black family tress sketch when it was auctioned off. I just said that IF I was Emma I would try to purchase it because it is her characters book I did not say she or any other HP actor did purchase it.
Lastly, if you think these actors can not afford that price I think you are sadly mistaken. It is called investing your money correctly and making interest. Their money from SS alone, if invested right, could have made enough interest over the years to purchase this book and then some. I once worked for a finance company depositing checks for clients and calculating interest for them. You would be amazed at how much interest that just one million American dollars can make in one day (and these acotor are paid in pounds which is stronger than our dollar). Think about it, one million dollars earning 3-6% interest a month sometimes a day depending on the type of investment account then times it by a year. People with these accounts make more in interest on one million dollars than most of make in a year.
Well, I think people should get off their high horses. Of course JK’s entitled to do anything she wants. And of course, the Children’s Voice is a wonderful charity. Nobody’s denied that! Why chastise people who express they would have preferred JK to publish those stories for charity as she did before, instead of auctioning a manuscript?
Nick, its accurate to say that we all share the disappointment that we don’t have the tales right now. What seems to be happening in the threads about the Tales is that some believe that the Tales will never be mass published, and others believe that they will. That makes the most sense to me, since I don’t really see anyone truly believing that a mass edition “had to be” made available to us “right now”.
Could be wrong, but that’s how I’m understanding the discussions re the Tales.
WELL SAID, GRACE WEASLEY!!!! – claps – That was very well said. Hey, haven’t you said in another post a while back that you were thirteen? Whoo, I wish I could speak that well when I was thirteen :)
Oh! Thank you, Chelsea…Though I’m closer to fourteen now than thirteen :) Dang, does that lose me some of my maturity points? Hah, thanks for the compliment!
Wow. So nice for charity. But I got an idea: what if Jo made Snape’s Advance Potion Making book from Book 6 and made it available to everyone! It would be like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them; all the money would go to charity! Do you like this idea?
That’s an amazing amount to go to chairity. Kudos to Jo!
The only problem is, of course, if you find this under the Christmas tree, you will know how much someone spent on you. That’s always embarrasing, isn’t it?
@ budb
Not Hermione Jane, but Hermione Jean! ;)