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J.K. Rowling Will Auction Hand-Written Harry Potter Prequel for Charity
Well, the claimed she wouldn't return to the Harry Potter world, but I guess a prequel doesn't count - especially since it's for charity.
Author J.K. Rowling is writing an 800 word prequel to the Harry Potter universe, a hand-written, signed copy will be put up for auction for a dyslexia charity.
Rowling has been heavily involved in charities and philanthropy since the publication of her first Harry Potter novel.
Rowling's hand-written prequel, signed by the author, will be auctioned alongside works by other famous writers to raise cash for a dyslexia charity.Despite the brevity of the piece, experts believe it could fetch big money, since other autographed works by the blockbuster author have sold for millions of dollars.
"We never dreamed that J.K. Rowling would donate something so precious, and we're incredibly grateful," said Gerry Johnson, managing director of Waterstone's, the UK book chain organizing the auction.
"I can't begin to guess how much it will raise at auction."
A previous 93-word storycard from Rowling, which referred to the book "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," sold in 2002 for $53,000. Rowling later produced seven hand-written copies of a new work, "The Tales of Beedle the Bard," one of which sold for $3.9 million in 2007.
In May 2008, bookseller Waterstones asked Rowling and 12 other writers (Sebastian Faulks, Doris Lessing, Lisa Appignanesi, Margaret Atwood, Lauren Child, Richard Ford, Neil Gaiman, Nick Hornby, Michael Rosen, Axel Scheffler, Tom Stoppard and Irvine Welsh) to compose a short piece of their own choosing on a single A5 card, which would then be sold at auction in aid of the charities Dyslexia Action and English PEN. Rowling's contribution was an 800-word prequel to the Harry Potter series. Rowling claims that she does not intend to return to Harry Potter for at least ten years.[121][122]
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May 29, 2008 at 03:55 pm by Rob Walker, 501 views, 4 comments
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Comments (4)
at 16:08 on May 29th, 2008
Haha. "an 800 word prequel". Maybe she can follow up with a 140 character tweetquel!
at 16:46 on May 29th, 2008
Sounds like a PR stunt to me.
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kwillisat 17:48 on June 3rd, 2008
This photo is a bit embarrassing because it shows I saw the movie before finishing the book. Shame on me, I know. The strange thing was I didn't like the beginning of the film because that was the part I had read. The film left out so many things and conflicted with my vision of the story. I think it's always best to read the book first with enough time for the story to settle before seeing a film adaptation of the book.
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edgygrrrlat 12:22 on June 20th, 2008
I took this shot at the midnight release party of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at Accent on Books in Asheville, N.C.
Anne Fitten Glenn
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