First Edition of Harry Potter Book Auctioned for Record Price

The first printing of the English edition of the book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone from 1997 fetched $471,000 at an auction in the United States on Thursday.

 

Auction house Heritage Auctions said this is a world record for a twentieth-century novel.

According to the auction house, only 500 copies of the book were printed in this particular issue, with a hardback and colour illustration. Most of them ended up in libraries in the United Kingdom. The auction house describes the book as “magical, incredibly clear and almost virginal”.

The Philosopher’s Stone is the first in the series by British author J.K. Rowling on the sorcerer’s apprentice Harry Potter. Other first editions of the series never fetched more than $138,000 at auction. The starting price at the auction Thursday was $70,000. It is unknown who the buyer is.

The Harry Potter books have been translated into more than 80 languages, and more than 500 million have been sold worldwide.

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