FLEMING, Ian.

£27,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

From Russia, with Love. First US edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to his American publisher, Al Hart, on the front free endpaper: "To Al, By, with, & from Ian".Fleming and Hart first met in 1953: Fleming had just published Casino Royale, and Hart was working for Macmillan, which had bought the American rights to the novel and any subsequent instalments in the series. Hart became Fleming's editor for the first seven books he published in the US, as well as "his crony, confidant, and drinking companion on all his subsequent visits to New York" (Pearson, p. 231).Hart made several changes to the series when it was published in the US. For the first paperback edition of Casino Royale, Hart changed the title to the pulp-sounding You Asked for It, writing to Fleming to explain: "the Great Unwashed won't know how to pronounce 'Royale'... If You Asked for It turns your stomach bright green, it might be a good idea to suggest an alternative title or titles" (quoted in Pearson, p. 249). For the US edition of Live and Let Die, Hart deleted several passages he thought racially insensitive; Fleming approved the changes and adopted the amended version for new editions.Fleming began work on the present novel in 1954. Following the advice of his friend Raymond Chandler, he hoped to move away from the "straight pillow fantasies of the kiss-kiss, bang-bang variety" and "put more feeling into my typewriter" (letter to Chandler, quoted in Pearson, p. 286). The r

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