‘Potter’ Prequel Fetches $48K
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
J.K. Rowling’s handwritten prequel to the “Harry Potter” novels fetched $48,855 at a charity auction in London on Tuesday night.
The signed, 800-word tale was one of 13 “storycards” written on sheets of A5 paper being offered by Waterstone’s, a U.K. bookseller. The signed piece concludes with the teasing words, “from the prequel I am not working on — but that was fun!”
The buyer was an absentee bidder. More than 100 guests attended the invitation-only event, called “What’s Your Story?” and run by a Sotheby’s auctioneer, Edward Rising, at the Waterstone’s branch in Piccadilly.
Ms. Rowling, 42, has ruled out a full prequel to the novels about the boy wizard, which have sold about 400 million copies. Other works were being sold by authors including Sebastian Faulks, Richard Ford, Doris Lessing, Nick Hornby, and Tom Stoppard. Proceeds go to English PEN and Dyslexia Action, Waterstone’s, which is owned by HMV Group Plc, said.
At a Sotheby’s London charity sale in December 2007, Amazon.com Inc. paid a record auction price of $3.98 million for Ms. Rowling’s handwritten volume of fairy tales, “The Tales of Beedle the Bard.”
