LONDON — An 800-word prequel to the Harry Potter series, handwritten by author J.K. Rowling, sold for $49,323 at an auction Tuesday.
An absent bidder paid about $60 per word for Rowling’s short story at a charity auction in London. Proceeds will benefit the writers association English PEN and a dyslexia charity.
A short mystery story by acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard raised $7,892.
Rowling was able to squeeze her Harry Potter prequel onto both sides of a piece of A5 paper, which is slightly bigger than a postcard.
Twelve other authors and illustrators also contributed cards to the auction, including Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing, and fellow British novelists Nick Hornby and Margaret Atwood.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the final installment of Rowling’s seven-book series, was published last year. The Associated Press
