Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
FLEMING, Ian. Casino Royale. Macmillan Company, New York, 1954.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First American edition. Corners just a little bumped and rubbed, a very good plus or better copy lacking the dust jacket. The first James Bond novel.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Fleming, Ian. Casino Royale. THE MACMILLAN CO, NY, 1954.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: General wear: small bookplate, foxing, previous owner sticker inner back cover, small red crayon mark inner back cover DATE PUBLISHED: 1954 EDITION: FIRST PRINTING 176
Seller: Princeton Antiques Bookshop, Atlantic City, NJ, U.S.A.
FLEMING, Ian. Casino Royale. The MacMillan Company, 1954.
Price: US$1750.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: FLEMING, Ian [176] pp The Macmillan Company 1954 Second Printing 8 1/4" x 5 1/2" Jacket design by Leo Manso
Seller: The Cary Collection, Bristol, CT, U.S.A.
FLEMING, Ian Lancaster (1908-1964). Casino Royale. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1954, 1954.
Price: US$2254.46 + shipping
Description: [Bond] FIRST US EDITION. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.176. Bound in original dark green cloth boards in the pictorial dust-jacket designed by Leo Manso. Priced to the front flap ($2.75) but with both corners clipped, as was the publisher's method. No inscriptions, discreet ink stamp beneath flap, used jacket has some tape strips to reverse side, minor touch-up in places, spine a little sunned. Shows well; an inexpensive copy of the first edition. Author's first novel. Gilbert A2b (1.2).
Seller: Adrian Harrington Ltd, PBFA, ABA, ILAB, Royal Tunbridge Wells, KENT, United Kingdom
Fleming Ian. Casino Royale. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1954.
Price: US$2610.00 + shipping
Description: Nice copy in its first printing. Scarce. Unmarked, tight and square. The book that started the James Bond series. First printing stated on copyright page. Price intact jacket has the extra angle cuts done to the front flap that was done because of changing thoughts on price to use. Light rubbing and minor creasing. Red background on spine sunned but other areas not impacted. In mylar. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Seller: Timothy Norlen Bookseller, Santa Barbara, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$2999.99 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: IAN FLEMING - CASINO ROYALE, published by MacMillan, copyright 1953 (but published in the U.S. in 1954 as stated on the title page), First Printing (states "First Printing" on copyright page with no references to subsequent printings - there was a 2nd printing in this format that states as such), white endpapers with dark green cloth boards and dark red/orange lettering to spine and front board, $2.75 price on DJ front flap on the bottom right corner and all four corners of the flaps are not clipped. THIS IS THE TRUE 1ST STATE DUST JACKET - I HAVE HANDLED NEARLY 50 COPIES OF THIS BOOK IN DUST JACKET IN OVER 25+ YEARS AND THIS IS ONLY THE 2ND TIME THAT I HAVE HAD THE TRUE 1ST STATE DUST JACKET WITH $2.75 PRICE ON BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER ON FRONT FLAP (THE PUBLISHER QUICKLY CHANGED THE PRICE AFTER JUST A HANDFUL OF BOOKS WERE SOLD BY CLIPPING THE BOTTOM PRICE AND THEN CLIPPING THE TOP RIGHT CORNER OF THE FRONT FLAP AND PRINTING A NEW PRICE $2.95 PRICE SIDEWAYS). THE ONLY OTHER COPY OF THIS BOOK THAT I HAVE EVER HANDLED THAT THAT THE $2.75 PRICE ON THE BOTTOM CORNER WAS MISSING ABOUT 25%-33% OF THE FRONT PANEL AND SPINE AND I SOLD THAT COPY SOME 3+ YEARS AGO FOR OVER $1200. BIONDI & PICKARD REFERS TO THIS AS THE FIRST PRINTING, FIRST ISSUE BOOK: "ALL FOUR DUST WRAPPER CORNERS ARE SQUARE (UNCLIPPED), CONFORMING TO BIONDI & PICKARD'S FIRST ISSUE, DESCRIBED AS 'FIRST ISSUE OF DUST-JACKET HAS COMPLETE, SQUARE-CUT FRONT FLAP CORNERS' (BIONDI & PICKARD, PAGE 40)" J. GILBERT - IAN FLEMING - THE BIBLIOGRAPHY, PAGE 47. THE 1ST PRINTING, SECOND ISSUE HAS ANGLE-CLIPPED CORNERS ON THE DUST JACKET FLAPS AND THE $2.75 PRICE WAS REPRINTED SIDEWAYS NEAR THE TOP RIGHT ON THE FRONT FLAP. Book has just a couple of creased page corners, no foxing to pages or endpapers or outer page edges, hint of dust soiling/age darkening to outer page edges, couple of tiny faint glue spots near top on rfe otherwise original endpapers are clean and free from soiling or scotch tape marks, no former owner's markings or used bookseller stamps/stickers inside, no wear to board edges or corners, barest hint of wear to bottom spine tip, tiny bumped board corner, no discoloration/soiling to boards, no wear to spine or front board lettering. Dust jacket has has a closed double tear at top of spine otherwise no chipping, tearing or creasing, slight wear to spine tips, barest hint of wear to front flap crease (nick losses at flap crease corners), almost no edge wear, NO SPINE SUN FADING (very very very common defect with this DJ - the red and often the green on spine is almost always found sun faded), no soiling to front panel, no foxing to white rear panel, slight dust rubbing to white rear panel, no color rubbing to panels. Overall a FINE-/N-FINE book in VG+/FINE- condition dust jacket (not price clipped) of an Ian Fleming U.S. 1st printing 1st state hardcover book. I have a number of other U.S. and U.K. Ian Fleming James Bond 1st printing hardcover appearances up for sale.
Seller: Far North Collectible Books, Anchorage, AK, U.S.A.
FLEMING, Ian Lancaster (1908-1964). Casino Royale. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1954, 1954.
Price: US$4830.99 + shipping
Description: [Bond] FIRST U.S. EDITION, ASSOCIATION COPY. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.176. Bound in original dark green cloth boards in the pictorial dust-jacket designed by Leo Manso. Priced to the front flap ($2.75) but with both corners clipped, as was the publisher's method. Decorative bookplate, SIGNED by Amherst Villiers, also SIGNED by his daughter Janie Villers in our presence. A near fine copy of the book with a few light marks to covers, jacket with some chips, rubs and tears, some minor sunning to the spine, a few old tape repairs to reverse side. Author's first novel. Engineer Charles Amherst Villiers (1900-1991) designed a supercharger for the 4½ litre 'Blower' Bentley, the gearing for which was made by David Brown & Son [D.B.S.], prior to their acquisition of Aston Martin, a struggling motor company previously funded by Count Louis Zborowski. His friend Ian Fleming chose the 'blower' as James Bond's own vehicle in Casino Royale, plus a company Aston Martin D.B.3 for the Goldfinger assignment, and later consulted Villiers while writing Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, an adventure book about a vintage car based on Zborowski's 1920 Zeppelin-powered Mercedes. Gilbert A2b (1.2).
Seller: Adrian Harrington Ltd, PBFA, ABA, ILAB, Royal Tunbridge Wells, KENT, United Kingdom
FLEMING, Ian. CASINO ROYALE. New York: The Macmillan Company., 1954.
Price: US$70854.46 + shipping
Description: First American edition, first impression. Inscribed association copy. Publisher's original green cloth with red titles to the upper board and spine, in the Leo Manso designed dustwrapper. A very good or better copy, the binding square and the cloth fresh. Minor bumping to the spine tips and a small nick towards the base of the spine. The contents, with some foxing to the edge of the endpapers and closed text block edge are otherwise clean throughout. Complete with the lightly rubbed and nicked dustwrapper that has a couple of short closed tears but remains uncommonly bright and attractive. Housed in a bespoke, quarter black morocco solander case. Inscribed by Ian Fleming in blue ball point pen to the front endpaper "To Paul / who wrote the golden words / from / the author / 1954". A superlative association copy, inscribed by Fleming to his great friend and early James Bond champion, Paul Gallico. American novelist and short story writer Paul Gallico, worked with Fleming at The Sunday Times. He was one of the first people to read the manuscript of Casino Royale, providing Fleming with encouragement to publish. The "golden words" to which the author refers in his inscription are printed in red on the front flap of the first edition dustwrapper "PAUL GALLICO calls CASINO ROYALE "The best gambling thriller I have ever read. Fabulously exciting." Jon Gilbert in his award winning bibliography of Ian Fleming writes "Paul Gallico was not only a fan but was of particular help getting Casino Royale published in the United States, where initially the book seemed difficult to place. Unlike the British Cape editions, very few American editions appear to have been inscribed by the author". We are aware of only one other inscribed American first edition (the Stanley Meyer copy also noted in the bibliography). The author's first book, introducing 007 James Bond. First American edition, first printing, second state with the front flap of dustwrapper clipped to the corners and with the printed price of $2.75. [Gilbert A1b (1.2).] Further details and images for any of the items listed are available on request. Lucius Books welcomes direct contact with our customers.
Seller: LUCIUS BOOKS (ABA, ILAB, PBFA), York, United Kingdom