THE title page of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
A 1997 first edition of Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone personally annotated by J.K. Rowling sold for £150,000 at Sotheby’s in London on May 21. This is a new record for a printed book by Rowling. The edition contained a revealing commentary and 22 of her own original illustrations.
Matilda by Roald Dahl with new illustrations by Quentin Blake sold for £30,000; Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, sold for £18,000; Julian Barnes’ Metroland, sold for £14,000; Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader, made £11,000; Seamus Heaney’s Death of a Naturalist, made £17,000; Colm Toibin’s The Heather Blazing, made £15,500; Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall made £16,000; Edmund de Waal’s The Hare with Amber Eyes, made £14,500 and Ralph Steadman’s richly illustrated Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson made £14,500.
The First Editions, Second Thoughts auction featured 50 contemporary writers. They annotated and in some instances illustrated a first edition copy of one of their best-known works. The sale raised a combined total of £439,200 for English PEN, the writers’ charity which campaigns for freedom of expression.