Rowling's 'Beedle' to be published

LONDON, July 31 (UPI) -- British author J.K. Rowling says her fairy-tale collection, "The Tales of Beedle the Bard," will be published this December.

The collection was mentioned in Rowling's book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows."

Rowling hand-wrote and illustrated seven copies of "Beedle," six of which she gave away, while the last one was auctioned off for charity. The online book dealers Amazon bought the auctioned copy for nearly $4 million.

Although the book wasn't expected to be published, the BBC said the British charity the Children's High Level Group, which Rowling co-found to help vulnerable children across Europe, will publish three editions of the book.

Bloomsbury and Scholastic will also publish an edition, featuring additional commentary on each fairy tale from "Potter" character Professor Albus Dumbledore. Amazon is to produce a maximum of 100,000 collector's edition copies.

"There was understandable disappointment among Harry Potter fans when only one copy... was offered to the public last December," Rowling told the BBC. "I am therefore delighted to announce that, thanks to the generous support of Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Amazon -- and with the blessing of the wonderful people who own the other six original books -- 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard' will now be widely available to all Harry Potter fans."

Copyright 2008 by United Press International