James Bond First Editions

These Horned Islands. A Journal of Japan.

[FLEMING, Ian/BONDIANA] KIRKUP, James.

London: Collins, 1962. [Travel/culture] FIRST EDITION, and PROOF COPY of the First Edition. 2 vols. Octavo, pp.444; 448. Publisher's red cloth in pictorial jacket, proof in red softcovers with printed label to upper. Both in very good used condition (jacket a little spotted, neat inscription to hardback). 'You Only Live Twice' took Bond (and Fleming) to Japan; he was accompanied on his lengthy research trip by his trusted journalist friends Richard Hughes (Fleming's Far Eastern correspondent at the Sunday Times) and Torao 'Tiger' Saito (editor-in-chief of 'This Is Japan'). Both would be honoured as characters in the novel; 'Dikko' Hughes becoming 'Dikko' Henderson, Australia's man in Tokyo, and Saito becoming 'Tiger' Tanaka, the head of the Japanese Secret Service. Both were joint dedicatees of the book, which was to be a superb travelogue of Japan and her people, customs and philosophies, in which Fleming was acutely interested and widely read; his manuscript of the book, held at the Lilly Library, has a lengthy handwritten note by Fleming giving a list of four guide books as recommended resource material including James Kirkup's 'The [sic] Horned Islands'. The experimental style of this novel, with a more thoughtful Eastern Bond proved a success with critics and public alike; later Raymond Benson, one of the foremost Bond experts claimed 'You Only Live Twice is an Ian Fleming masterpiece'. (Bedside Companion, p.140). Item #71512

Campbell 12007C1. See also Gilbert, Section L.

Price: £235.00