The Tales of Beedle The Bard!
Sotheby's Aims to Set $104,000 Record for J.K. Rowling Tale
Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Sotheby's aims to set a record of 50,000 pounds ($104,000) for author J.K. Rowling when it sells a hand-written fairy tale for a children's charity on Dec. 13.
``The Tales of Beedle the Bard,'' containing five stories with themes from the Harry Potter books, is one of only seven copies handwritten and illustrated by bestselling author Rowling, Sotheby's said in a statement today. The London sale will benefit the Children's Voice, a charity co-founded by Rowling.
The auction record for billionaire Rowling, 42, was set last month when a first edition of ``Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' sold for 19,700 pounds at a Christie's International London auction.
Rowling has said she'll produce no more Potter books. Writing the fairy tale was a ``way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived for 17 years,'' Rowling said in the Sotheby's release.
Rowling's latest Potter book, ``Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,'' sold 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours and 11.5 million in its first 10 days. There are 140 million copies of the Harry Potter books in print in the U.S. alone.
To contact the reporter on this story: Linda Sandler in London at lsandler@bloomberg.net .
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