These autographed first editions offer a rare glimpse into Fleming’s influences as he built the world of 007
When Ian Fleming sat down to write his first spy series, he wanted to give his protagonist what he described as ‘the simplest, dullest, most plain name’ he could. to find. He was at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica, a remote, sprawling resort where, when he wasn’t writing, his favorite pastime was birdwatching – a term which, in British intelligence slang, also means “to spy on “.
One afternoon, as the breeze blew gently across the jealousy windows, Fleming’s eyes wandered the room in search of inspiration. Landing on a reference book, Birds of the West Indiesit turned out that the author was none other than the ornithologist James Bond.
“I was struck by the fact that this short, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon yet very masculine name was exactly what I needed,” he said. James Bond hid his character’s thoughts, allowing this cool, calculating character to be built through action. In a serendipitous moment, the ornithologist revealed himself to be the prime spy.
Experts debate whether the Bond character was entirely fictional, as Fleming’s inspiration often came from the people he worked with or from events that occurred during his military service. They are usually named with a subtle nod to their real life counterparts, and on rare occasions he would present them with an autographed edition of one of his books. April 11 at Christie’s, Fine printed and manuscript books, including Americana the online sale will feature three of these highly prized volumes, along with other rare selections from Fleming’s opus.
“The fact that Fleming was so inspired by characters he knew personally gives the novels a sense of realism and intimacy,” says Mark Wiltshire, book and manuscript specialist at Christie’s. “His wartime experiences form the basis of the novels’ historical grounding, but he also undertook serious research and sought the advice of knowledgeable correspondents.”
A copy of the first edition of Casino Royale inscribed ‘To M.’, an allusion to the enigmatic head of Britain’s secret service in the 1940s and 1950s. Fleming’s debut novel features M., as he assigns Bond the mission of bankrupting a Soviet agent in a high-stakes baccarat game.
Experts suggest this was based on an experience Fleming had with Admiral John Godfrey – his superior during their time together in the Naval Intelligence Division – at the Estoril Casino in Portugal. A possible source of inspiration for Mr. Godfrey was a decorated officer whose wartime memoirs are also included in this sale.
By the time of Fleming’s fourth novel, From Russia with love, published in 1957, his series had already acquired wide notoriety among English-speaking audiences. It revolves around a plot by Soviet counterintelligence to assassinate Bond through a honey trap: Soviet agent Tatiana Romanova. Set primarily in Istanbul and the Orient Express, its plot would be loosely informed by Fleming’s trip to Turkey as a journalist.
This first edition copy bears the inscription of arms expert Geoffrey Boothroyd, who worked for Imperial Chemical Industries in Glasgow in the manufacture of ammunition. After reading Fleming’s first novel, Boothroyd sent a letter to the author informing him that the weapon Bond was using – a .25 caliber Beretta – was an inappropriate choice for the character.
As Boothroyd clarified in an interview with the BBC in 1964, “I didn’t think Bond would last very long if he used a Beretta .25 pistol, which is a women’s pistol, and used his chamois holster.” Fleming, so convinced by the argument presented in the letter, wrote the expert in the Bond world as an adviser on all matters related to weapons.
“Fleming wanted his novels to be as accurate as possible,” says Mark Wiltshire, “hence his joy at receiving such detailed advice from Boothroyd on what weapon was most likely to be used by a Secret Service agent. British”. The inscription reads ‘To Geoffrey Boothroyd, hereafter named ‘Armourer’ of James Bond.’ In addition, the expert’s own Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver served as the model for this edition’s dust jacket.
In 1959, Fleming was sent abroad on a trip paid for by the Sunday Times. This brought him to Asia, where over the course of five weeks he traveled through Japan, Macau and Hong Kong, eventually returning to England via Honolulu and the mainland United States. He wrote about the trip in a travel diary titled Thrilling citiesincluded in Queen Anne Press’s deluxe edition which includes all of Fleming’s fiction and non-fiction works in a beautifully bound presentation set.
Her journey, however, also served as the basis for her 11th novel, you only live twicepublished in 1964. This sale includes a first listed edition of Fleming to Richard ‘Dikko’ Hughes, Australian correspondent in the Far East for Fleming’s employer, The Sunday Times. A former boxer and former part-time MI6 spy, Hughes acted as Fleming’s guide on this trip.
After writing him and their Japanese guide Toreo ‘Tiger’ Saito into the novel as Richard Lovelace ‘Dikko’ Henderson, an Australian spy, and Tiger Tanaka, the head of the Japanese secret service, Fleming each presented a personally inscribed edition. The proposed book, presented to Hughes, reads: “To Dikko-san, from Fleming-san, with all my love”.
Following this novel, Fleming released three more episodes of the series while overseeing film and television productions for his franchise. By the time his last tale was published in 1966, James Bond was life removed from the anonymous, indescribable name he had been given 11 years before.
In the countless adaptations that followed, the archetypal spy was inextricably woven into the fabric of British culture. Wiltshire says that “James Bond in the novels is in many ways a product of Fleming’s time, but the continued success of Bond films over the decades shows that this character can be updated and reinvented for modern audiences” .
“The presentation copies offered in this sale are of great importance”, he continues. “They’re enticing, intimate and exceptionally cool. Kind of like Bond himself.