Auction price realized Magna Carta

From the Washington Post:

Magna Carta sells in NY auction for $21.3 million

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A rare 710-year-old copy of the Magna Carta was sold at auction for $21.3 million by The Perot Foundation at Sotheby's in New York, the auction house said on Tuesday.

The Magna Carta established the rights of the English people and curbed the power of the king. The U.S. Constitution includes ideas and phrases taken almost directly from the charter, which rebellious barons forced their oppressive King John to sign in 1215.

Sotheby's said the Magna Carta was ratified and reissued with each monarch who succeeded John. It was enacted as law in 1297 by the British parliament when it was reissued by King Edward I. The copy sold on Tuesday is from 1297.

When it announced the auction in September, Sotheby's said the document was valued at up to $30 million.

The medieval vellum manuscript was bought at auction by the founder of a private equity firm, David Rubenstein, who plans to keep it where it has been on display at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington D.C.

Sotheby's said there are fewer than 20 copies of the Magna Carta and that this copy is one of only two held outside of Britain. The other copy, also from 1297, is owned by the Australian government.

The Perot Foundation, created by billionaire former U.S. presidential candidate Ross Perot to make philanthropic grants, will use the money for its charities. The Foundation bought the Magna Carta in 1984.

(1984 purchase price was 1.5 million, not a bad appreciation!)

Vocabulary Builder

This site hosts a vocabulary game where for every correct answer the advertisers will donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. (1000 grains is roughly one cup).

Harry Potter Auction Price Realized

This in from the Oct 25th auction at Heritage Auction Galleries. A first English edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. (a X-library copy!) fetched a very cool $33,460.

J.K. Rowling: The Rare True First Edition of the First Harry Potter Book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. ([London]: Bloomsbury, [1997]). First edition. Octavo (7.75" x 5"). 223 pages. Publisher's pictorial laminated boards, no dustwrapper was issued for the first edition. Ex-library copy, with ink stamp to copyright page that shows through to the title page, two blemishes to paper from staples to the preliminary pages, including title. Light bumping to corners, and general light rubbing, small scratch on the rear board, evidence of label removed from front free endpaper but barely noticeable. Altogether, a very good, handsome copy, with the covers and text block remarkably clean and tight. The book shows very well. Very scarce indeed. Reputedly only 300 hardcover copies were printed, nearly all of these went to schools and libraries. This particular copy was once the property of the Portsmouth City Library, evidenced by the library stamp on the title page, which reads "Portsmouth City Council Library Service". Both first issue points present on the copyright page: "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1" and "Copyright © Text Joanne Rowling 1997".

Eloise Auction Price Realized

From the 10/25/07 auction at PBA Galleries this signed first edition of Eloise by Kay Thompson fetched $3737 after buyers premium.

Nobody reads anymore?

Anytime I read too many articles proclaiming that no one reads anymore and the days of the book are over, I go re-read this paragraph written by my daughter shortly after she moved from the mid west to San Francisco:

I went to the SF Friends of the Library book sale today. I've been to library booksales before, so I knew I had to go to this sale. It was held in Fort Mason, one of the old warehouse-military type buildings on the piers. I walked in, past a dozen registers or so, and got to a mini-food court area before I really comprehended what I was seeing. You know that part at the end of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the lost ark, where the arc is crated and stored in a huge area filled with other crates? Thats what it was like, only with tables and tables of books. I almost wet myself.

In the end, I bought what I thought I could carry home then grabbed a cab when I realized I couldn't. Good times.

The readers are still out there, harder to find perhaps but just as passionate.

I wish I could be lofty and superior and claim to know the secret of raising a passionate reader, but truth be told we've raised two children in the same environment, crammed to the rafters with books, but only one is a serious reader the other does not read anything unless absolutely necessary.

word for the day

DISCIPLINED

the second definition from dictionary.com:

2. activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training: A daily stint at the typewriter is excellent discipline for a writer.

Antithesis of disciplined: me

Even as x-libris

Another series title that I would pick up even as a library discard if and only if it still had a dust jacket attached is:

Helen Dole Boylston's Sue Barton books. Especially the first in the series: Sue Barton Student Nurse. Originally published by Little Brown in 1936 this book was in print a long time. (Abebooks lists a 43rd printing.)