James Bond First Editions

Moonraker.

FLEMING, Ian Lancaster (1908-1964).

New York, NY: The Macmillan Company, 1955. [Thriller] FIRST U.S. EDITION, INSCRIBED ASSOCIATION COPY, presented to Al Hart, the author's American publisher and editor. Octavo (20 x 13cm), pp.220. Bound in original pale green cloth blocked in black, in the pictorial dust-wrapper designed by Leo Manso. Inscribed on the front free endpaper: "To Al, my American publisher & conspirator. Ian 1955." Head of spine bumped, a little foxing to top edge, pp. 106-7 browned from inserted clipping (an advertisement for the novel in the 3 December 1955 issue of the New Yorker), contents otherwise clean; jacket unclipped, slightly rubbed and toned, edges lightly nicked and creased, surface abrasions to front panel: a very good copy in very good jacket. An important copy. Fleming and Hart first met in 1953: Fleming had just published Casino Royale, and Hart was working for Macmillan, which had bought the American rights to the novel and any subsequent instalments in the series. Hart became Fleming's editor for the first seven books he published in America, as well as "his crony, confidant, and drinking companion on all his subsequent visits to New York" (Pearson, p. 231). Hart made several changes to the series when it was published in the US. For the first paperback edition of Casino Royale, Hart changed the title to the pulp-sounding You Asked for It, writing to Fleming to explain: "the Great Unwashed won't know how to pronounce 'Royale'. If You Asked for It turns your stomach bright green, it might be a good idea to suggest an alternative title or titles" (quoted in Pearson, p. 249). For the Macmillan edition of Live and Let Die, Hart deleted several passages he thought racially insensitive; Fleming approved the changes and adopted the amended version for new editions. The dust jacket by Leo Manso is the first to incorporate a skeletal hand into the design, which would later be used to great effect by Richard Chopping in subsequent jackets for the UK editions. Item #71694

Gilbert A3b(1). John Pearson, The Life of Ian Fleming, 1966. Offered in partnership with Peter Harrington, London.

Price: £37,500.00