Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

LE CARRE, John.

Item Number: 125968

London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1974.

First British edition of the author’s seventh novel and what many consider to be his finest. Octavo, original cloth. Signed by author on the title page, “John le Carre aka David Cornwell.” Fine in a fine price-clipped dust jacket. An exceptional example, rare and desirable signed by the author using his pseudonym and real name.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy garnered instant praise for Le Carre as "[t]he premier spy novelist of his time. Perhaps of all time" (Time). "Le Carre is simply the world's greatest fictional spymaster" (Newsweek). Le Carre’s inspiration drew from his experience of the revealing of the Cambridge Five traitors in the 1950s and ‘60s (Anthony, 2009), and the novel’s popularity can be seen in relation to those shocking events. In 2011, the novel was adapted into a successful film, starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth, and it received three nominations at the 84th Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Actor. This successful production is but one of Le Carre’s numerous accolades in espionage fiction. He was awarded both the Helmerich Award and the Goethe Medal, and, in 2008, The Times ranked Le Carré 22nd on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945."