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63 About this deal
A clean, fine book in near fine jacket, lightly rubbed at joints with a small nick to crown, spine gently toned. Covers much tanned and marked, lean to spine, top corners bumped, spots to endpapers and fore edge, scrappy remnant of part of dust wrapper. Bond's killer is to be the SMERSH executioner Donovan "Red" Grant, a British Army deserter and psychopath whose homicidal urges coincide with the full moon. In 1952 Lord Kemsley appointed Fleming as the managing director of the Queen Anne Press as a wedding gift, a position he held until his death in 1964. Despite this, there are no other markings or inscriptions, and the binding remains intact and secure.
Jon Gilbert's file copy, with his pencilled notes, bookplate and ownership signature to free endpaper. Fleming himself interpreted his creation in the same way, once saying that Bond was the intelligence community's "strong right hand" in the fight against communism (ibid.all this left Fleming rather stunned, and he gave his private verdict on the Interpol Conference in a letter to Admiral Godfrey. No markings to the text, there's a little bit of spotting in the front endpapers up to the start of Chapter One and a bit of spotting to the outer edges of the pages when viewed as a block, but otherwise the pages still look and feel tight and clean. Reader's noteEnjoy another James Bond novel with this 1963 edition of From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming !
The 1955 conference of the ICPC - the precursor to Interpol - drew together government representatives, agents, and related stakeholders from around the world. The Queen Anne Press was established in 1951 by James Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley, who was a significant figure in Fleming's life. Gilbert notes that "the 'Uncorrected Proof' text may be stamped to the front cover, although the copy viewed did not feature this wording".The novelist Raymond Benson—who later wrote a series of Bond novels—sees aspects of self-doubt entering Bond's mind with the "soft" life he has been leading when he is introduced in the book. Nevertheless, "Dulles liked Bond because the series was an unashamed celebration of the spy business. The novel is credited with launching the James Bond craze, and leading to the official EON Productions film series. The bloodthirsty biographies of the world’s most infamous pirates are reproduced in this Folio edition of Captain Charles Johnson’s renowned work, including original woodcut illustrations and a fascinating introduction by Margarette Lincoln.
Gilbert states "there appear to be very few presentation copies of this title given out by the publisher". Bifolium: mild toning, minor creasing to corners, central horizontal crease, leaves with short split starting along the fold at edge, just touching three letters on one page, light foxing to outer margins, tiny mark from adhesion of p.
The Man with the Golden Gun is in the second issue jacket with darker grey lettering than the first issue.
Eco says that the opening passage introducing Red Grant is a "cleverly presented" beginning, similar to the opening of a film. Boards have heavy shelf wear with moderate bumping and fraying to corners and crushing and fraying to spine ends.As an added lure, Romanova will provide the British with a Spektor, a Russian decoding device much coveted by MI6. The first appearance in print of two Bond stories, together with the first serialisation of another in the Daily Express.
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