In the upcoming New Year, the story about the wizarding student Harry Potter will celebrate its silver anniversary. For twenty-five years, the successful books by British author J K Rowling have been delighting the young – and young at heart – readers around the globe. They are undoubtedly a fantastic success, and one that nobody expected at the beginning.
On 26 June 1997, the first volume in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was published by Bloomsbury in London. Due to the apparently low chances of success, the first-edition hardback consisted of just 500 copies, most of which went to public libraries.
See also: The 7 Most Expensive Harry Potter Collectors’ Items
But, as is well known, everything turned out rather differently, so that a first edition of the first Harry Potter volume is now a coveted collector's item. This also reflects the result that such a book achieved on 9 December at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas. The bidding started at $75,000 and triggered a competitive bidding war that only ended with a hammer price of $471,000 (£356,000) – a new world record for an object from the Harry Potter universe.
"It's the most expensive commercially published 20th-century work of fiction ever sold," said Joe Maddalena, Heritage Auctions executive VP in a statement (via CNET). "This result shows the power of that combination of literature and cinema."
