“ONE OF THE LEAST FORGETTABLE CHARACTERS IN MODERN FICTION”: FIRST EDITION OF DR NO, WITH BROWN-STAMPED DANCING GIRL ON FRONT COVER
FLEMING, Ian. Dr. No. London: Jonathan Cape, (1958). Octavo, original brown-stamped paper boards, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box.
First edition of the sixth Bond thriller, introducing Dr. No, perhaps the most famous of the Bond villains and the first to appear on film, this copy with the desirable silhouette of a dancing girl brown-stamped on the front cover.
The further adventures of "literature's most famous spy" (Steinbrunner & Penzler, 151) and basis for the first Bond film in 1962, starring Sean Connery and Ursula Andress. Time acclaimed the title villain as "one of the least forgettable characters in modern fiction" (Black, 32). First edition, with all points. With brown-stamped dancing girl silhouette on front board ("probably intended to be Honeychile Rider" [Biondi & Pickard, 44]); binding is listed by Gilbert as second state and is considered more desirable than the plain binding of the first state. Gilbert A6a(1.3). Biondi & Pickard, 44-45. Contemporary owner signature and annotation.
Interior fine; one small spot of soiling to fore edge. Slight wear to extremities of bright, price-clipped dust jacket. A nearly fine copy.