James Bond First Editions

The Traveller's Tree. A Journey Through the Caribbean Islands.

[Ian Fleming / Bondiana] FERMOR, Patrick Leigh (1915-2011).

New York: Harper & Brothers, [1950]. [West Indies and Caribbean Travel] American edition, using the British sheets (no edition stated). Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.xii; 403 [1]. With an illustrated frontispiece and 48 black and white photographic plates by A. Costa, as well as a sketch-map by H.W. Hawes. Publisher's red cloth with black titles, typographic dust-jacket. Contents clean, text leaves slightly toned (in contrast to plates), jacket with moderate wear, some tonign and soiling, price clipped. Very good. Fermor was an Irish Guards officer and war-time hero who played a prominent role behind enemy lines during the Battle of Crete, organising the island's resistance to Nazi occupation, as part of the elite Special Operations Executive, which was the forerunner of the modern secret services formed by Churchill to "set Europe ablaze". He was awarded the DSO and later became Commander of the Order of the Phoenix, bestowed upon him by the Greek government. His post-war travels were superbly documented and 'The Traveller's Tree' won the Heinemann Prize for Literature. His 1977 book 'A Time of Gifts' is a masterpiece, ranking among the greatest travel books ever written. He also translated 'The Cretan Runner' written by the Greek Resistance fighter and dispatch officer George Psychoundakis; Fermor's former sub-ordinate in Crete during the war, and has also written a novel 'The Violins of Saint-Jacques' which was made into an opera by Malcolm Williamson. He was a contemporary and friend of fellow explorer Peter Fleming, and his journalist brother Ian. Fermor is considered one of the greatest 20th century travel writers and, as a man of both action and intellect, was described by the BBC as 'a cross between Indiana Jones, James Bond and Graham Greene.' Many years later, whilst still a member of the Editorial Board at the Sunday Times, Ian Fleming had the brilliant idea of asking some of the greatest writers of the time to comment on their favourite deadly sin—Fermor (on 'Gluttony') was among them, and the resulting book 'The Seven Deadly Sins' which included an essay by Fleming, was published in 1962. 'The Traveller's Tree' is also itself an important source book used by Fleming whilst researching his 007 novel 'Live and Let Die', influencing Fleming's zombie voodoo god Baron Samedi and the references to Hiatian voodoo culture. Fleming utilised several passages in his descriptions of ceremonies in Haiti. From the collection of Fleming bibliographer Jon Gilbert. Item #71340

See Gilbert, section L.

Price: £175.00