LONDON — A hand-written and hand-illustrated volume of stories given by J.K. Rowling to the editor who launched her career has sold at auction for $467,965.

J.K. Rowling encourages theatergoers to let others "enjoy 'Cursed Child' with all the surprises that we've built into the story."

J.K. Rowling

Sotheby’s sold one of seven original copies of “The Tales of Beedle the Bard,” produced in 2007 to mark publication of the final Harry Potter novel.

It’s inscribed to Barry Cunningham, the editor at Bloomsbury who accepted the first Potter book for publication. The dedication reads, “To Barry, the man who thought an overlong novel about a boy wizard in glasses might just sell. THANK YOU.”

The leather-bound book, adorned with semi-precious stones and a silver skull, sold Tuesday to an anonymous telephone bidder.

Another of the seven copies, produced for a 2007 charity auction, was bought by Amazon for almost 2 million pounds (about $2,500,000).


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