Anonymous buyer bids $500K for Star-Spangled Banner first edition

LONDON - An anonymous buyer bought the first edition of the “Star-Spangled Banner” poem, whose words were adopted for the US national anthem, for a whopping 506,500 dollars.

According to Christie’s New York auction house, it is the only first edition of the poem in private hands, and one of just 11 such manuscripts to exist.

Francis Scott Key wrote a first draft of the poem in September 1814. He was inspired after witnessing the defence of Baltimore’s Fort McHenry against a British bombardment.

The poem was set to music and publisher Thomas Carr rushed the song to print. It was finally adopted as the US national anthem in 1931.

Since the poem’s publication it had “become in the intervening years an absolute true icon of American history and patriotism,” the BBC quoted Christie’s manuscript expert Chris Coover, as saying.

“I’m fortunate enough to have been here 30 years. It’s the first time I’ve ever handled one and it’s quite a thrill,” he said of the manuscript. (ANI)