James Bond First Editions

Scenes From a Bourgeois Life.

[Ian Fleming / Bondiana] JACOB, Alaric (1909-95).

London: Secker & Warburg, 1949. [Autobiography] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.310; [2] blank. Publisher's cloth in typographical dust-wrapper priced at 15s. Contents clean, no inscriptions, edges spotted, jacket is worn with some chips to extremities. Very good. Described by Paul Hogarth as 'the quintessential English journalist', Jacob had been a Reuters reporter in the '30s and a war correspondent during World War II, operating in North Africa, Burma and Moscow. A close friend of Margot Asquith, he was introduced him to Sir Roderick Jones who offered him a diplomatic post at Reuters, where he met the young journalist Ian Fleming. Scenes from a Bourgeois Life, is a semi-autobiographical novel and features the character Hugo Dropmore, a thinly-disguised portrait of Ian Fleming who owned the Dropmore Press (later the Queen Anne Press). The book is rare; this being the only copy currently available. From the collection of award-winning Ian Fleming bibliographer Jon Gilbert (pencilled ownership within). Item #71551

Gilbert pp.656-7, 660.

Price: £495.00