FLEMING, Ian Lancaster (1908-1964). Thunderball. London: Jonathan Cape, 1961, 1961.

Price: US$2122.51 + shipping

Description: [Spy thriller] FIRST EDITION, Binding 'A'. Brigadier Fitzroy Maclean's copy, with SIGNED notepaper and printed label loosely inserted. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.254; [2], bank. Publisher's cloth-effect paper over boards with embossed skeleton hand design to upper board, gilt titles to spine, dust-wrapper illustrated by Richard Chopping, priced at 15s., housed in a custom-made clamshell box. Some moderate wear and handling; jacket with a few chips and tears. Very good. 'House of Commons' headed paper is in near fine condition (Maclean served as a minister in the War Office around this time). A significant association. Provenance: Sir Fitzroy Maclean (1911-96), former Etonian diplomat, S.A.S. Commando, adventurer and travel writer encouraged by Peter Fleming; liaised with Ian Fleming during the Moscow spy trials in the 1930s, served in Soviet Central Asia, the Western Desert Campaign, and at Churchill's personal request, behind enemy lines with Tito's partisans in Yugoslavia. Maclean was often labelled a model for James Bond, with Ian Fleming noting that 007 was "a compound of all the secret agents and commando types that I met during the war" (Bond Bound, p.26). Maclean, Peter and Ian Fleming were reunited at literary events, each being published by Jonathan Cape. Originally sold with all Maclean's copies of the Bond novels [Lyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh, 2008], purchased by bibliographer Jon Gilbert for his Fleming Archive, where this copy has remained since. Gilbert A9a (1.1).

Seller: Adrian Harrington Ltd, PBFA, ABA, ILAB, Royal Tunbridge Wells, KENT, United Kingdom

FLEMING, Ian Lancaster (1908-1964). Thunderball. London: Jonathan Cape, 1961, 1961.

Price: US$4823.89 + shipping

Description: [Spy thriller] FIRST EDITION, Binding 'A', SIGNED BY THE ARTIST. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.254; [2], bank. Publisher's cloth-effect paper over boards with embossed skeleton hand design to upper board, gilt titles to spine, dust-wrapper illustrated by Richard Chopping priced at 15s, autographed in blue ink above his printed credit on jacket flap. A clean, fine copy of the book in a near fine, lightly handled jacket with a couple of neat, short tears. Richard Wasey Chopping (1917-2008), was a British illustrator and author, painting in the trompe l'oeil style to create a realistic and almost three dimensional appearance. Among his illustrations are nine iconic covers for the James Bond books by Ian Fleming, published between 1957 and 1966, and the cover of John Gardner's first Bond continuation novel, Licence Renewed (1981). 'Dickie' Chopping was born in Colchester, Essex and educated at Gresham's School, Holt. He lived in the historic village of Wivenhoe for over sixty years, founding an artist community which counted Francis Bacon as a member. Gilbert, Jon: Ian Fleming The Bibliography, A9a (1.1).

Seller: Adrian Harrington Ltd, PBFA, ABA, ILAB, Royal Tunbridge Wells, KENT, United Kingdom

FLEMING, IAN.. Thunderball. London: Jonathan Cape, 1961, 1961.

Price: US$17500.00 + shipping

Description: First Edition. Near fine in dust jacket. Presentation copy; inscribed by the author, 'To Jonathan Miller from the Author.' Fleming, an antiquarian book collector himself, was clearly very much aware of old conventions slipping away, and often adhered to this old custom of inscribing books from 'the Author.' In the nineteenth-century, it is not uncommon to find the closest associations; to a wife, mother, child, friend, etc., presented in this manner. In our day, this would seem cold, peculiar, or incomplete, but it does have a certain old-fashioned charm that antiquarian books are supposedly cherished for. All books described as first editions are first printings unless otherwise noted.

Seller: Peter L. Stern & Co., Inc, Newton, MA, U.S.A.

Fleming, Ian. THUNDERBALL. Jonathan Cape [1961], London, 1961.

Price: US$22500.00 + shipping

Description: Octavo, original black boards, front stamped in blind, spine stamped in gold. Signed by Fleming on the front free end paper. A James Bond novel. The first appearance of the head of SPECTRE, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Source for several feature films. Gilbert: Ian Fleming The Bibliography, A9a (1.1). Hubin, p. 288. Smith and White: Cloak and Dagger Fiction (3rd ed.) 1889. A fine copy in a just about fine dust jacket with a new publisher price label affixed over the printed price of 15s at the lower front flap corner, mild toning to upper spine panel, light rub mark to lower front panel. Now housed in a custom clamshell box. An attractive copy. (30685)

Seller: John W. Knott, Jr, Bookseller, ABAA/ILAB, Laurel, MD, U.S.A.

FLEMING, Ian. Thunderball. Jonathan Cape, 1961, 1961.

Price: US$45022.95 + shipping

Description: First edition, first impression, presentation copy. Octavo. Original dark grey boards, spine lettered in gilt, skeletal hand motif blocked on the front cover in blind (Gilbert's A binding). With first issue dust jacket (priced at 15s.) Head and foot of spine very slightly bumped; a fine copy. Minor stain to a small portion of the front panel, short closed tear to the foot of the rear panel, extremities very slightly rubbed; else a near-fine and bright jacket. Inscribed by the author "To Noël, In exchange for the copy of P & C he didn't send me! With love Ian" on the front free endpaper. The inscription refers to Noël Coward's first and only novel, Pomp and Circumstance (1960), at the centre of which is a thinly-veiled account of Fleming's affair with Ann. Set on the fictional island of Samolo - a close match for Jamaica - it concerns the secret relationship between the aristocratic Eloise and her lover, Bunny, whose character mirrors Fleming's almost exactly. "In the character of Bunny. we have a remarkably unflinching portrait of Ian Fleming's time on the island in 1949-51, the years immediately preceding his marriage to Ann and the simultaneous launch of James Bond . It's astonishing how little Coward bothered to make up" (Parker, page 91). This copy is from the significant Ian Fleming collection of Martin Schøyen (b.1940), with his bookplate. Schøyen's private collection of manuscripts, which span all cultures and all time periods, is one of the largest and most comprehensive of its kind. Matthew Parker, Goldeneye, Where Bond Was Born: Ian Fleming's Jamaica, 2015; Gilbert A9a(1.1); The Schøyen Collection No. 70.

Seller: Adrian Harrington Ltd, PBFA, ABA, ILAB, Royal Tunbridge Wells, KENT, United Kingdom

FLEMING, Ian.. Thunderball.. London: Jonathan Cape, 1961, 1961.

Price: US$112557.38 + shipping

Description: First edition, first impression, the dedication copy, inscribed to Ernest Cuneo by the author on the front free endpaper, "To Ernie, who started these thunderballs rolling! From Ian". The printed dedication reads, "To Ernest Cuneo, Muse." Ernest L. Cuneo (1905–1988) was an American lawyer and newspaperman. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he was appointed a liaison officer between the OSS, British Security Coordination (a part of MI6), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Department of State, and US President Franklin Roosevelt. While working with British Intelligence, he became a close friend of Ian Fleming, as well as Roald Dahl, Noël Coward, and Ivar Bryce. After the war, Cuneo joined with Ivar Bryce and a group of investors, including Ian Fleming, to gain control of the North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA). When Fleming was considering writing detective fiction, Cuneo introduced Fleming to elements of the New York underworld. Cuneo was exactly the kind of affable, larger-than-life character calculated to appeal to Fleming. A college football star gone to fat, Cuneo was almost as wide as he was tall. Fleming named a taxi driver in Diamonds Are Forever "Ernie Cureo" (sic). Fleming later credited Cuneo with more than half the plot for Goldfinger. As Fleming's inscription acknowledges, Cuneo was crucial to the genesis of Thunderball. In mid-1958, Fleming and Ivar Bryce began talking about the possibility of a Bond film. Later that year, Bryce introduced Fleming to a young Irish writer and director, Kevin McClory, and the three of them, together with Fleming and Cuneo, formed the partnership Xanadu Productions. All four worked up various outlines, treatments and scripts, under such titles as "SPECTRE", "James Bond of the Secret Service", and "Longitude 78 West". Memories of who contributed which elements vary, but Cuneo seems to have been responsible for ships with underwater trapdoors in their hulls and an underwater battle scene. Xanadu Productions never made the film, and in the event James Bond did not make his screen debut until Dr. No. Fleming recycled all the major elements of these abandoned film treatments for this novel. This immediately led to legal difficulties with Kevin McClory, who claimed part copyright, but Fleming's inscription to his American friend, with his cheerful acknowledgement of Cuneo's part in the book's creation, predates that unhappy episode. Fleming did not dedicate all of his James Bond books. Only five from the series of 13 Bond titles published during his lifetime have printed dedications. Of these five, only two are dedicated to single recipients: Goldfinger dedicated to William Plomer, and the current book. Gilbert A9a(1.1). Octavo. Original dark grey boards, spine lettered in gilt, skeletal hand motif blocked on the front cover in blind (Gilbert's A binding). With first issue dust jacket (priced 15s). Extremities bumped, some minor marks to fore edge, unclipped jacket nicked and rubbed with some minor loss, a very good copy in a like jacket.

Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom