Surprise: Beedle the Bard Purchaser is Amazon.com

Posted on December 14, 2007

Jeff Bezos shocked everyone -- it turns out that Amazon.com is the surprise high bidder for the handwritten and hand-illustrated book of fairy tales by J.K. Rowling called The Tales of Beedle the Bard. The online bookseller paid close to $4 million for the rare volume. There are only seven of the books in existence: one was sold for charity and the others are being given to friends of J.K. Rowling.

Rowling has retained the copyright to the book; Amazon.com is not allowed to produce a mass market version of the fairy tales. Fans are clamoring to read the stories, so we think that some kind of deal will eventually be cut so that everyone can read them.

You can see up close photos of this gorgeous book as well as reviews of the stories at Amazon.com's Beedle the Bard Section.