Beschreibung:

FLEMING, Ian. Diamonds are Forever. London: Jonathan Cape, 1956. 8 o. Original black boards, decorated and lettered in silver (hinges starting); pictorial dust jacket. Provenance : Muriel Williams (presentation inscription). FIRST EDITION. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED TO HIS LONGTIME PERSONAL SECRETARY on the front free endpaper: "To Muriel Williams my faithful reader! from Ian Fleming " This is one of only three Fleming novels with a printed dedication. In his own copy of Diamonds are Forever (now with his books and papers at the Lilly Library) Fleming partially explains the printed dedication: "This was written in January and February, 1955 at Goldeneye. It is dedicated to Ivar Bryce, Ernest Cuneo (Cuneo the cab-driver) and Billy Woodward, who was shoot by his wife on Long Island--a famous case--while the proofs were being corrected. He vetted the racing sequences. He owned Nashua, a famous 2 year old. Felix Leiter is based on no one. Bond enjoys Tiffany on the floor of the cabin because one cannot make love on a pillow mattress. I lost $ 500 at Las Vegas" ( Fleming exhibit catalogue , The Lilly Library, 1963).