Amazon.com Pays $4 Million for Beedle The Bard

Posted on December 14, 2007

In a shocking announcement, it was revealed that Amazon.com was the high bidder for the handwritten and illustrated book by J.K. Rowling called The Tales of Beedle the Bard. The $4 million sale proceeds goes entirely to The Children's Voice campaign, a charity Jo co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe. Amazon has created a special section dedicated to the book, with reviews of each of the stories and detailed photos of the gorgeous and rare book.

Under the terms of the auction, J.K. Rowling retains the copyright to the book and the purchaser is forbidden from publishing it in a mass market edition. That doesn't mean that Jo won't ever allow it to be published, of course. Her foremost concern was raising money for charity.