Not THAT one…her new one. And the only one available for sale. J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard was snatched up yesterday by Amazon.com at an auction held by Sotheby’s in London. As discussed here before, Rowling’s book was set to start at $62,000, and only expected to sell for $100,000 according to this CNN article. Then capitalism happened. The acquisition has top billing on one of the holiday’s most hit websites, Amazon.com, who has devoted an entire page to the stories in an effort to share the book with the world. Amazon writes that
We’re incredibly excited to announce that Amazon has purchased J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard at an auction held by Sotheby’s in London. The book of five wizarding fairy tales, referenced in the last book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is one of only seven handmade copies in existence. The purchase price was £1,950,000, and Ms. Rowling is donating the proceeds to The Children’s Voice campaign, a charity she co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe.
The book of five wizarding fairy tales, referenced in the last book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is one of only seven handmade copies in existence. The purchase price was £1,950,000, and Ms. Rowling is donating the proceeds to The Children’s Voice campaign, a charity she co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard is extensively illustrated and handwritten by the bard herself–all 157 pages of it. It’s bound in brown Moroccan leather and embellished with five hand-chased hallmarked sterling silver ornaments and mounted moonstones.
Amazon also posts some fairly indepth pictures here should you want to see Rowling’s handwriting at 10 megapixels emblazoned across your screen. What you may find more interesting should lack for material to make you go to sleep is the discussion boards that range in topics from “Witch Rowling” to “Pathetic.” My personal favorite, not that I’ve read them of course, was the thread entitled “Why?” opening with the question “What is the point other than donating to charity? Will amazon benefit from this other than a little increased traffic for a day?” After several snippy responses from members of the public, Amazon posted the following:
Our primary reason for buying this book was to thank J. K. Rowling, who has done us all an immeasurably valuable service by enlarging our understanding of the way books can touch people-and in particular, children-in modern times. By purchasing this book, we can in a tangible way say thanks to Ms. Rowling for all that she has done for readers around the world. We’re also delighted that the proceeds are being donated to her charity, which has done so much to help children.
And we’re very happy to be able to share the book with her many fans through pictures, reviews, and eventually through a tour (which is in its very early planning stages). Like most of you, we are true bibliophiles, and we feel very fortunate to be in a position to share such a rare treasure.
And if I was as filthy rich as Amazon and could drop $4M on a book for charity, I’d be all about it too. For all the reasons they stated and one more that everyone seems to be missing.
End of the year tax write off.
