Beschreibung:

Fleming, Ian. CASINO ROYALE. NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 1954 8vo, first American edition, presentation copy inscribed by the author to his close friend ivar bryce ("To Ian | Vol I of the Collected Works | Ian"), original green cloth lettered and decorated in red, dust-jacket, jacket slightly chipped, missing some small pieces along edges and on spine The first "james bond" novel inscribed to one of the author's closest friends and co-agent in naval intelligence during the war. Ivar bryce (d.1985) is thought to have been the friend who first suggested "James Bond" as a suitable name for fleming's fictional secret agent. Bryce and Fleming first met as schoolboys on holiday in Cornwall in 1917 (Fleming was nine), and later became lifelong friends. At Eton together--where Fleming was unhappy—they found "they both enjoyed the kind of laddish escapades frowned upon by school authorities, like playing truant and meeting girls..." (Andrew Lycett, Ian Fleming . Bryce was the scion of an Anglo-Peruvian family which had made a fortune in the trade of guano: "with his thick, sensuous lips, Bryce was distinguished by satyr-like good looks which he owed to his part-Aztec Indian origins" (op.cit.). It was Bryce who found Goldeneye on Jamaica for his friend after he had visited the island in 1944, and subsequently became a frequent house guest. On his side Fleming attended weekend house parties at the Bryces' country estate Moyns in Essex. When Fleming was struggling to find an American publisher for Casino Royale it was Bryce who stepped in to help. When Fleming sought the elusive film deal for his Bond stories, Bryce collaborated with him on a possible American television series starring his hero; later, once the film franchise had become established it was Bryce who supported his friend in his court case with Kevin McClory (McClory had claimed his copyright had been infringed in Thunderball), advising him finally to settle out of court. For thirty years Ivar Bryce was married to Josephine Hartford, daughter of George Huntington Hartford II, heir to the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company fortune, and the original owner and developer of Paradise Island in the Bahamas. There are a number of references to Bryce in the Bond novels. In Casino Royale, for instance, Fleming introduces his CIA agent, Felix Leiter – Felix, as in Bryce's second Christian name, and Leiter, as in their mutual American friend. In Dr. No Bond and his lover travel by rail from Penn Station under the false names "Mr and Mrs Bryce", to escape Mr Big's intelligence spies. Bryce is one of the three co-dedicatees of Diamonds are Forever (1956). Bryce's memoirs were published as You Only Live Once in 1975.