Goldfinger.

FLEMING, Ian.

Item Number: 57015

London: Jonathan Cape, 1959.

First edition of the seventh novel in Ian Fleming’s James Bond series. Octavo, original black cloth. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To  Gerald Micklem, This piece – of homework! from Ian Fleming.” Fine in a near fine dust jacket with light rubbing. Jacket design by Richard Chopping. Housed in a custom clamshell box by The Dragonfly Bindery, that reproduces an image of the skull with rose from front panel of the dust jacket.

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.