Description

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, INSCRIBED BY IAN FLEMING TO NEWSPAPERWOMAN EVELYN IRONS

FLEMING, Ian. The Spy Who Loved Me. London: Jonathan Cape, (1962). Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition of the tenth Bond thriller, inscribed by Fleming on the front free endpaper: “To Evelyn from Ian.”

The title page lists the book as being written by Ian Fleming with Vivienne Michel. “The title page coauthorship credit is a hoax: Vivienne Michel was the name of the wife of one of Fleming’s golfing companions in Jamaica” (Biondi & Pickard, 47). The recipient of this copy was Evelyn Irons, Fleming’s colleague at London’s Sunday Times who made a name for herself by covering WWII while fighting for the Free French Forces and by being the only reporter to break through the U.S. State Department news blackout in Guatemala during the 1957 revolution (she rented a donkey and rode it through guerrilla lines to get her story). Later, she would work with Fleming on his Sunday Times travel series, which would become the 1964 book Thrilling Cities. Her Times obituary noted that “As well as her Scottish accent, Irons always retained some distinctively Scottish qualities: tenacity and a taste for hard work and whisky.” Qualities which, no doubt, Fleming appreciated.

No quad mark on title page (no priority established). First-state dust jacket (price 15s. net).

Book fine. Toning to spine and light edge-wear to near-fine dust jacket.