Moonraker
Cape, 1955.
First edition. Original black cloth with silver embossed titles, in striking 'flames' dustwrapper. Author's presentation copy, inscribed on the front endpaper, "To Clare / Who washes my books behind the ears! / Ian 1955." A fine copy in a near fine dustwrapper which shows the usual dulling to the spine but is crisp and clean.
Clare was secretary to Fleming's friend the journalist, Joseph Kingsbury-Smith, national editor and chief foreign writer of Hearst Newspapers in New York, whom Fleming had met during the war. Clare was a fan Fleming's novels and received this presentation copy on one of Fleming's visits to New York.
The third James Bond book, in which Fleming's narrative style, now well established, displays his own brand of polished suspense. Cape's confidence in Fleming is evident as well: 10,500 copies of the first edition were published. However the materials used for the dustwrapper (cheap, soft paper printed in orange and yellow, which fades, on a white background, which soils) means that well preserved copies are quite scarce and presentation copies even more so.
Stock ID: 34733
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