First-edition Harry Potter book sells for £64,000 at Staffordshire auction
Two first-edition copies of Harry Potter have sold for £64,000 and £36,000 at auction in Lichfield, Staffordshire today.
The hardback copies of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' are two of only 500 books in the first print of JK Rowling's debut novel, dating as far back as 1997.
One of the books for sale has no signs of it being read, except for a small mark on page 128. Jim Spencer, from the Rare Books Auctions team, said he's discovered 20 of the 500 books so far- but the one that sold for £64,000 is is one of the best conditions he has ever seen.
The other book is owned by Adam McCulloch from Chesterfield. His mum bought him the book thirty years ago in a charity shop. It was then put in a cupboard under the stairs, much like a young Harry himself!
Adam said: "I was pretty flabbergasted, I still am in all honesty. At the time it was a book and now it has obviously become so much more! It's still sinking in, in all honesty."
"It's just a sign that you never know really, one ten-pound book, it may end up somewhere like this. Who knows!".
The two books reached £64,000 and £36,000 respectively.
The book that reached £64k has a heartbreaking tale behind it. It bears the inscription: ‘Dear Katie, my favourite sister! With all my love, Sarah, 12 August 1997’.
Tragically, Katie battled cancer from the age of five and passed away aged only 40. Her family said she was amiracle sister because she survived so much against the odds. Katie knew her book was a first-edition and hoped any money raised would eventually go to Sarah’s children. That wish was honoured today.
Before the sale of the book today, Sarah, 50, who is now a volunteer and mother-of-two, said: "This book belonged to my sister, Katie King. Even as an adult, she loved children’s adventure and fantasy novels and so when I was browsing through the Bookseller one day at work in 1997, I was interested in an interview with a then unknown author, Joanne Rowling, who’d got a book deal for a children’s fantasy novel about wizards."
"My sister had almost exhausted children’s fiction in the fantasy genre after my mum had spent years teaching her to read again after she had cancer as a five-year-old in 1975. Listening to audiobooks and music helped her through recovery and chemo after surgery to remove a brain tumour."
"As soon as I’d read the interview, I popped out to the nearest WHSmith in Victoria Street, London, to pre-order a copy. My sister was 27 at the time and I was 24 and working as an assistant in an academic publishing company. I didn’t think much more about it until the shop called to say the book was available. Katie read the book in one sitting! She loved it so much I decided to read it straight afterwards."
"We were both hooked and we pre-ordered the next book in the series as soon as we could. The books brought so much joy to my sister and we’d never read anything like it. I don’t recall there ever being a children’s book before that had appealed to me so much as an adult. "Katie never got to meet my daughter, Matilda Katie, who was born the following year although they’re very alike. My son, Joseph, was born a couple of years later and recently my parents moved in with us so that we can take care of them. It was time to move the book from my parents’ to my house. We kept it with us for a few months so that our home could absorb some of its magic. Now we are carrying out my sister’s wishes to provide the gift for my children she always dreamed of."
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