Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$4197.16 + shipping
Description: [Thriller] FIRST EDITION, First Impression, Binding A, an ASSOCIATION COPY. Pp.253. Publisher's cloth-effect paper over boards in pictorial dust-wrapper illustrated by Richard Chopping. This is the personal copy of John Alden, founder and chairman of The Alden Press (Oxford) Limited, the printer of this and many James Bond titles, and is accompanied by a statement to this effect signed by his son and heir. A fine association. A used copy but with no significant defects; jacket darkened to spine, rubbed to joints with some chips and tears. Housed in a bespoke black cloth clamshell to a uniform design by Gilbert. Provenance: William Alden, by descent. Gilbert A5a (1.1).
Seller: Adrian Harrington Ltd, PBFA, ABA, ILAB, Royal Tunbridge Wells, KENT, United Kingdom
FLEMING, Ian Lancaster (1908-1964). From Russia, With Love. London: Jonathan Cape, 1957, 1957.
Price: US$8717.19 + shipping
Description: [Thriller] FIRST EDITION. An unusual pre-publication association/presentation copy with signed inscription by Ian Fleming's literary editor William Plomer to A. Franklyn. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.253; [3]. Publisher's black cloth-effect material over boards, blocked in silver and red metallic foil to spine and upper. Binding 'A' (Fabroleen cloth), pictorial jacket by Richard chopping in final proof state with unclipped corners. Inscribed on 6th April (pencilled by the owner), two days before the date of release. Some spotting to edges and first and final gatherings, externally fine. Very good, similarly used jacket supplied, with chip to crown. William Plomer (1903-73), was a senior reader at Jonathan Cape Ltd., and one of Fleming's most trusted friends. He was instrumental in getting Casino Royale published and read and advised on each successive Fleming manuscript. He was unofficially Fleming's Editor-in Chief, and the novel Goldfinger is dedicated to him [Gilbert, p.650]. This copy was later part of the comprehensive James Bond collection of bibliographer Jon Gilbert, with accompanying provenance. Gilbert A5a (1.1).
Seller: Adrian Harrington Ltd, PBFA, ABA, ILAB, Royal Tunbridge Wells, KENT, United Kingdom
Fleming, Ian. From Russia With Love - SIGNED by Richard Chopping. London Jonathan Cape 1957, 1957.
Price: US$12268.63 + shipping
Description: First edition, first printing. Published by Jonathan Cape, London, in 1957. This is a very good copy. The dust wrapper is finely illustrated by Richard Chopping and SIGNED by him with full name (Richard.W. Chopping) to the front end-flap. The very good dust wrapper is not price clipped and has some internal repair with chipping to the extremities - two thin stains to the rear panel. The boards are in very good condition, with no notable chips and marks to note, aside from a very slight lean. The red embossed title on the spine is bright, and the gun and rose motif is bright and glistening. This is free from previous owner's ink. The text blocks are generally clean, but have some rare instances of spotting present. In clamshell box Richard Chopping illustrated nine dust-jackets in Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, starting with From Russia, With Love. His covers are instantly recognisable for their trompe-l'il style and use of tea chest font. The fifth title in the James Bond series. Gilbert A5A
Seller: John Atkinson Books ABA ILAB PBFA, Harrogate, United Kingdom
Fleming, Ian. From Russia, With Love.. Jonathan Cape, London, 1957.
Price: US$48000.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, first state of the fifth James Bond novel and what Fleming considered one of his best books and listed in Life magazine as one of US President John F. Kennedy's top ten favorite books. Octavo, original cloth with gilt titles to the spine, gilt rose and gun emblem to the front panel. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "To Dan from Ian Fleming." Near fine in a near fine price-clipped first issue dust jacket. Jacket design by Richard Chopping. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Uncommon signed. "Described in the Times Literary Supplement as most brilliant, the book was a great commercial success and helped to launch Fleming as a best-selling novelist It ended with Bond seriously wounded and nearly killed by fugu poison from the sex organs of the Japanese globe-fish While the ending was not quite Sherlock Holmes and his apparently fatal last struggle with evil at the Reichenbach Falls, Fleming had provided himself with an opportunity to remove his hero. He was not, however, to take it. There was public agitation when 007 was reported dead. Bond was irreplaceable" (Black, 27, 30). "This is a very highly sought after title, as it is generally considered the best novel in the series and the best of the movies, as well" (Biondi & Pickard, 44). Made into the 1964 film of the same title with Sean Connery as Bond and Lotte Lenya as ex-KGB agent Rosa Klebb.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
FLEMING, Ian.. From Russia, With Love.. London: Jonathan Cape, 1957, 1957.
Price: US$48428.81 + shipping
Description: First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to the eminent photographer, "To Erich Hartmann from his impatient patient. Ian Fleming". The recipient, Erich Hartmann (1922-1999), was the head of Magnum Photo, who "throughout his career, pursued many long-term personal projects, and photographic interpretations with literary echoes: 'Shakespeare's England', 'Joyce's Dublin', 'Thomas Hardy's Wessex'" (Magnum, online article), and took a series of photographs of his friend, Ian Fleming. This is the fifth novel in the James Bond series. A film adaptation starring Sean Connery was produced in 1963. This is the first of Fleming's novels for which Richard Chopping designed the jacket - as he would for virtually all the subsequent Bond books. Gilbert A5a (1.1). Octavo. Original black cloth, titles to spine and revolver and rose motif to front cover in metallic red and silver. With dust jacket. Housed in a black quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. Very slight lean to spine, else firm and clean; jacket bright, with very light rubbing, and very light nibbling at extremities discreetly reinforced with archival tape on verso, price intact. A near-fine copy in very good jacket.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Fleming, Ian. From Russia, With Love.. Jonathan Cape, London, 1957.
Price: US$75000.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, first state of the fifth James Bond novel and what Fleming considered one of his best books and listed in Life magazine as one of US President John F. Kennedy's top ten favorite books. Octavo, original cloth with gilt titles to the spine, gilt rose and gun emblem to the front panel. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "To Una who will at last get to the end! from Ian Fleming." The recipient, Una Trueblood, whose surname was later appropriated by Fleming for the character of Mary Trueblood in Dr. No. Una started working in 1948 at Kemsley Newspapers and The Sunday Times where she was soon appointed secretary to Ian Fleming, where he worked throughout the 1950s. She recalled that Fleming "always said he only wrote Casino Royale, the first Bond book, because he was on the plane to Jamaica and he read such a bad, boring thriller that he thought he could do better himself." He would write the Bond novels during his annual stays at Goldeneye, his home in Jamaica, thereafter sending the manuscript to Una for typing up. The character in Dr. No named after Una is Mary Trueblood, secretary to John Strangways, the head of the British Secret Service's Caribbean station, a position echoing that of Una to Fleming. Mary however met a gruesome end, stabbed to death. Recalling a visit to Una made in 2008 the writer Adam Thorpe noted that "The fictional Mary Trueblood has many features in common with her real-life namesake; she's described in Dr No (1958) as "elegant" (three times), "pretty" and a "good-looker." Near fine in a very good first issue dust jacket. Jacket design by Richard Chopping. An exceptional association copy. "Described in the Times Literary Supplement as most brilliant, the book was a great commercial success and helped to launch Fleming as a best-selling novelist It ended with Bond seriously wounded and nearly killed by fugu poison from the sex organs of the Japanese globe-fish While the ending was not quite Sherlock Holmes and his apparently fatal last struggle with evil at the Reichenbach Falls, Fleming had provided himself with an opportunity to remove his hero. He was not, however, to take it. There was public agitation when 007 was reported dead. Bond was irreplaceable" (Black, 27, 30). "This is a very highly sought after title, as it is generally considered the best novel in the series and the best of the movies, as well" (Biondi & Pickard, 44). Made into the 1964 film of the same title with Sean Connery as Bond and Lotte Lenya as ex-KGB agent Rosa Klebb.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.