Beschreibung:

Ian FlemingCasino Royale. London: Jonathan Cape, 1953
8vo, RAYMOND CHANDLER'S COPY (with Chandler's La Jolla address ownership stamp), FIRST EDITION, second impression, original black cloth (Fabroleen), spine and upper cover blocked in red, heart motif pictorial DUST-JACKET (jacket B, art by Kenneth Lewis, priced 10/6), collector's black half morocco clamshell box, some light spotting, dust-jacket with two marginal chips to lower panel and a few small closed tears
CHANDLER'S COPY OF THE FIRST BOND ADVENTURE, A WONDERFUL ASSOCIATION BETWEEN TWO MASTERS OF THEIR GENRES.
Ian Fleming and Raymond Chandler began a friendship in 1955, during a dinner at Stephen Spender's, and it lasted the remaining four years of Chandler's life. He inscribed a copy of his final novel, Playback for Fleming and received a warmly inscribed copies of Moonraker and Goldfinger from the Bond creator.
But their relationship had perhaps the most profound effect on Fleming and his literary career. By the time the two men meet, Fleming was finished with Bond, having "convinced himself that he had gone as far as with writing about James Bond as he ever would or could" (Pearson, pp. 232-233). It was in large part thanks to Chandler's encouragement that Fleming was persuaded not to abandon Bond after the first two literary instalments, but rather to give him greater depth.
PROVENANCE:Sotheby's New York, 13 December 2011, lot 133 (part lot)