A prepublication version of the first Harry Potter book by JK Rowling is expected to fetch at least £20,000 when it is auctioned this week. The galley proof (a publishing term for the printed version of a book before its final proofread) is the only known surviving copy of its kind. A first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone signed by Rowling is also up for auction and is expected to sell for at least £25,000.
The bundle of galley sheets, to be sold by Chiswick Auctions, consists of 109 pages. Accompanying the advance copy of Philosopher’s Stone are letters from 1997, the year of the book’s publication, showing correspondence between Rosamund Walker, then marketing manager at Bloomsbury Children’s Books (now Rosamund de la Hey, co-owner of independent bookshop The Mainstreet Trading Company), and children’s book reviewer Fiona Waters.
