JK Rowling Sets New Record

Posted by Elizabeth Gregory Dec 19, 2007

Last Thursday, December 13th, the famous Sotherby's auctioneers in London held a sale of English Literature, History, Children's Books and Illustrations. Unsurprisingly, the lot that drew most media attention before the event was a manuscript by one JK Rowling entitled The Tales of Beedle the Bard, one of only seven copies of this collection of new, hand-written stories. In the end, six bidders pushed the price up to £1,950 000 before the work was eventually bought by Amazon.com.

New Record for Rowling

Why is this so remarkable? Well, this is the highest amount ever paid at auction for a modern literary manuscript - one by an author who is still alive. All the money for the sale will go to The Children's Voice charity, helping vulnerable children across Europe.

The Success of Harry Potter

This latest sale is just another step in the remarkable success story of JK Rowling. Did you know:

• When Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows was released in hardback in July 2007, it became the fastest selling book of all time
• The series of Harry Potter books has now sold more than 350 million copies world-wide
• The books have been translated into 65 different languages

No wonder the media are all asking what on earth JK Rowling plans to do next!

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