"A NAKED ARM SMELLING OF CHANEL NO. 5 SNAKED ROUND HIS NECK…: VERY RARE FIRST ISSUE OF THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN WITH THE GILT GUN ON THE FRONT COVER

FLEMING, Ian. The Man With the Golden Gun. London: Jonathan Cape, (1965). Octavo, original gilt-stamped black paper boards, patterned endpapers, original dust jacket; housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. $16,500.

First edition of Fleming's final Bond novel, published the year after the author's death—in which 007 travels to Fleming's beloved Jamaica to neutralize the assassin of the book's title—the exceptionally rare first issue, one of only 940 copies with the gilt-embossed gun on the front of the binding.

"Fleming was adamant that this would be the last James Bond novel" (Gilbert A13a). Because Fleming wrote this Bond adventure while ill— the author "was only able to work on it for one and a half hours a day"— the publisher hired novelist Kingsley Amis to complete and revise it (Black, 75). The Cape archives state that 940 copies were produced with the golden gun stamping—a binding that is "effectively the publisher's trial binding, rejected in favor of a cheaper alternative" without the golden gun altogether [Gilbert A13a (1.1)]. "Copies tend to turn up most frequently in the extremities of the British Commonwealth, e.g., South Africa, Kenya, Australia and New Zealand" (Biondi & Pickard, 50), because "publication day would be the same throughout the British Commonwealth and stock would need to arrive in good time to meet this date… those nations furthest afield would be sent the earliest available copies (which, of course, meant the 'Golden Gun' bindings) at the the first opportunity" (Gilbert). Made into the 1975 film of the same title starring Roger Moore as Bond, with an all-star cast including Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, and Hervé Villachaize. Gilbert A13a (1.1). Owner signature.

Fine condition.