Goldfinger.

FLEMING, Ian.

$35,000.00

Item Number: 140248

London: Jonathan Cape, 1959.

First edition of the seventh novel in Ian Fleming’s James Bond series. Octavo, original black cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Lionel, Something more to read! From Ian.” The recipient, Lionel Berry, 2nd Viscount Kemsley was a politician and newspaper editor. His father, the 1st Viscount Kemsley, had given Ian Fleming his first job as a journalist when he employed him as the Foreign Manager for the Kemsley newspaper group. It was this role, with its contracted three month break every winter to allow Fleming to holiday in Jamaica, that gave Fleming the opportunity to write the planned spy novel that would become Casino Royale. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Richard Chopping. Housed in a custom clamshell box. A nice association.

Goldfinger originally bore the title The Richest Man in the World. Based upon American gold tycoon Charles W. Englehard, Fleming named his villain after British architect Erno Goldfinger. When the actual Goldfinger found out his name was being used, he threatened to sue Fleming, and the matter was ultimately settled out of court. A best-seller upon its release, it became the third James Bond film in 1964 starring Sean Connery.