GOLDFINGER, BOLDLY SIGNED BY IAN FLEMING

FLEMING, Ian. Goldfinger. London: Jonathan Cape, (1959). Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $23,000.

First edition of the seventh James Bond thriller, boldly signed by Ian Fleming.

Fleming's novels are "a perfect example of the right thing at the right time, as appropriate an expression and index of their age as, for example, the Sherlock Holmes stories or the novels of Dashiell Hammett" (Grella, 20th Century Crime and Mystery Writers). "In the first two months of 1958, Fleming wrote the first draft of Goldfinger under the working title The Richest Man in the World. This was destined to become a quintessential example of both the novels and the movies" (Biondi, 35). Perhaps surprisingly, given 007's globe-spanning adventures, this is the only Bond novel to include a map (on unnumbered page 246). Cloth in Gilbert's second state, without small indent in the top left section of the skull: "both were available upon publication." Gilbert A7a (1.2). Biondi & Pickard, 45. Bookplate.

Book fine, bright dust jacket with a few faint spots of foxing and very minor wear to spine head and upper corners, near-fine. A scarce and desirable signed copy.