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

FLEMING, Ian. Moonraker. London: Jonathan Cape, (1955). Octavo, original black paper boards, original dust jacket; housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. $15,000.

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

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. First-issue, with "shoo" instead of "shoot" on page 10, penultimate line; sheets bulk at 15 mm. First-issue dust jacket, with rear flap price "10s. 6d. net" and jacket design credit line on the front flap (Biondi & Pickard, 42). Gilbert A3a(1.1).

A fine book in an expertly restored dust jacket.