Moonraker

Ian FLEMING

Item#: 127322 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Moonraker
Moonraker

"HE MUST PLAY THE ROLE… THE MAN WHO WAS ONLY A SILHOUETTE": FIRST EDITION OF MOONRAKER

FLEMING, Ian. Moonraker. London: Jonathan Cape, (1955). Octavo, original black paper boards, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

Scarce first edition, second issue, of Fleming's third novel, in which Bond must foil the attempt of a British industrialist to destroy London with a nuclear weapon.

Considered by many to be one of the best of the Bond books, Moonraker afforded Fleming "an opportunity to wax lyrical about the England he loved—the 'panorama full of color and excitement and romance… [Fleming also] skillfully reintroduced notes of ambiguity and realism into the life of his globe-trotting hero… Noël Coward read Moonraker in proof in Jamaica and pronounced, 'It is the best thing he has done yet, very exciting… His observation is extraordinary and his talent for description vivid" (Lycett, 253-54, 269). Made into the 1979 film of the same title with Roger Moore as Bond and Lois Chiles as Dr. Holly Goodhead. The early Bond novels are quite scarce. Second issue, with "shoot" instead of "shoo" on page 10, penultimate line, and all other textual points called for in Gilbert A3a(1.2); sheets bulk at 19 mm. Biondi & Pickard, 41-42.

Some foxing to text block edges, cloth bright and fresh, near-fine; very scarce unrestored dust jacket with a bit of foxing to flap folds, tiny chip to head of spine that shows less-than-expected toning, flames still clear, overall quite clean and bright. An extremely good copy of this increasingly scarce early Bond title.

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