Description

FIRST EDITION OF THRILLING CITIES INSCRIBED BY FLEMING TO THE “BOOKBINDER TO JAMES BOND”

FLEMING, Ian. Thrilling Cities. London: Jonathan Cape, (1963). Octavo, original half white cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition of Fleming’s volume of travel journalism, illustrated with 48 pages of black-and-white photographs, boldly inscribed on the title page, “To Mr. A.H. Last. Bookbinder to James Bond! from Ian Fleming.”

“Fleming traveled widely from an early age and his interest in foreign places is reflected in his journalism? as well as in his fiction” (DNB). Sunday Times editorial director Denis Hamilton proposed “a round-the-world journey? as a suitable project for Ian’s talents. Ian would visit a number of Thrilling Cities (as his articles were later called) to report on their attractions to a man of Fleming’s (or James Bond’s) exotic tastes and sophistication” (Lycett, 354). The articles first appeared in the Times in 1959-60. The likely recipient of the book was Arthur Last, an early member of the Guild of Contemporary Bookbinders. It is possible that Last helped prepare Fleming’s loan of 44 rare books to the famous “Printing and the Mind of Man” exhibition in 1963—“by far the largest contribution from a private individual” (Lycett, 422).

Book about-fine. Dust jacket bright and near-fine with only very slight rubbing to edges. A lovely inscribed copy.