Rare Harry Potter first edition casts spell at auction

Book fetches record £150,000 at London charity auction.

LONDON:

Ever wondered what went through author JK Rowling’s mind when she wrote the first Harry Potter novel?

Fans of books about the boy wizard had a chance to bid on a unique first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone annotated by Rowling, which sold for a record £150,000 at a London charity auction, auction house Sotheby’s said on Tuesday. The 1997 book contains 43 pages of handwritten thoughts, Rowling’s commentary of the book and the film adaptation, as well as 22 hand-drawn illustrations including one of a sleeping baby Harry and another of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore.

The auction house said the sale room fell silent on Tuesday as buyers engaged in a bidding war for the coveted book, which eventually went to an unidentified buyer bidding over the telephone. The full sale featured 51 first editions, all unique one-offs featuring annotations and commentary from authors, as part of the “First Editions, Second Thoughts” sale to benefit charity organisation English PEN, which promotes freedom of expression.

Other top sellers included Roald Dahl’s Matilda with new illustrations by Quentin Blake for £30,000, Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day for £18,000 and Julian Barnes’ Metroland for £14,000. The total sale fetched £439,000.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was the first in a series of seven novels by Rowling, about the adventures of a boy wizard living in a world of ‘muggles’ and magic.

Only 500 first editions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone exist, making them the rarest of the series, which has become the best-selling book series ever and was adapted into a multibillion-dollar film franchise.

It includes a 43-page “second thoughts” segment from the author, with phrases such as, “I wrote the book ... in snatched hours, in clattering cafés or in the dead of night. For me, the story of how I wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is written invisibly on every page, legible only to me ...”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23^rd, 2013.

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