The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

Rowling's Beedle tales to go on sale

31.07.08 Anna Richardson

J K Rowling’s children’s charity, Children's High Level Group, will publish The Tales of Beedle the Bard later this year, with Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Amazon printing and distributing three different editions.

Seven copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard were created, handwritten and illustrated by Rowling last year. Only one copy was up for sale to raise money, with Amazon bidding £1.95m at auction to secure it. The wizarding fairy tales feature in the last Harry Potter book, when the character of Albus Dumbledore leaves them to Hermione Granger

Three editions of the book will go on sale on 4th December, with Bloomsbury in the UK and Scholastic in the US releasing a £6.99 ($12.99) version, which will feature additional commentary on each fairy tale from Professor Dumbledore and an introduction by Rowling.

Amazon will produce up to a maximum of 100,000 collector's edition copies (£50 / $100), which will aim to replicate the look and feel of the original handwritten copies. All net proceeds will be donated to CHLG to help de-institutionalise vulnerable children across Europe.

Rowling said: "Thanks to the generous support of Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Amazon – and with the blessing of the wonderful people who own the other six original books - The Tales of Beedle the Bard will now be widely available to all Harry Potter fans. The new edition will include the Tales themselves, translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger, and with illustrations by me, but also notes by Professor Albus Dumbledore, which appear by generous permission of the Hogwarts Headmasters’ Archive.”

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