From Russia, With Love

by FLEMING, Ian Lancaster (1908-1964)

$37,444 · Offered by Biblio

First edition · Signed

New York: The Macmillan Company. 1957. [Thriller] FIRST U.S. EDITION, INSCRIBED ASSOCIATION COPY, presented to Al Hart, the author's American publisher and editor. Octavo (22 x 14cm), pp.253; [3], blank. Publisher's beige/grey cloth lettered in black, in the original pictorial dust-wrapper with illustration by Richard Chopping, priced at $3.50. Inscribed on the front free endpaper: "To Al, By, with, & from Ian". Spine ends bumped, top edge foxed, pp. 90-1 browned from inserted clipping, contents clean; jacket unclipped, slightly rubbed, a little worn at extremities, spine slightly chipped with some discreet reinforcement to verso: a very good copy in very good jacket. Fleming and Hart first met in 1953: Fleming had just published Casino Royale, and Hart was working for Macmillan, who 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 America, 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.

• Publisher: New York: The Macmillan Company. 1957
• Edition: First Edition
• Binding: unknown

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.