“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. $3800.

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, in first-issue dust jacket with Fleming's name printed in black on the spine. 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.

A bit of offsetting to free endpapers, text and cloth clean and fine. Price-clipped dust jacket with a bit of offsetting to rear panel only, bright and about-fine. A lovely copy.