Ian Fleming | The Spy Who Loved Me, 1962, first impression, inscribed by the author

Ian Fleming

The Spy Who Loved Me. London: Jonathan Cape, 1962.

8vo, FIRST EDITION, FIRST IMPRESSION, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR ("To | Darling Julie | from | Ian Fleming") on front free endpaper, original dark grey/brown cloth, spine lettered in silver, design to upper board in silver and blind, red endpapers, original dust-jacket by Richard Chopping, housed in bespoke black cloth clamshell case with embossed dust-jacket design and red sides, occasional spotting, spine ends slightly bumped

This copy is made out to Julia "Julie" Garcia Cohen, a long-time friend of the author, and the owner of Morland's of Grosvenor Street: the brand famous for producing James Bond's cigarettes. First mentioned in Casino Royale, these cigarettes were specially made for Fleming himself, who evidently based Bond's smoking habits on his own. The author smoked over 60 a day of the same mix, and Morland went on to market cigarettes under James Bond's name (with the box labelled "James Bond Special No.1 | The Exclusive Balkan Cigarette | By Permission of IAN FLEMING").

"He lit his first cigarette, a Balkan and Turkish mixture made for him by Morland's of Grosvenor Street" (Casino Royale).

LITERATURE:

Gilbert A10a (1.1); for Fleming's friendship with Cohen, see Nicholas Shakespeare, Ian Fleming: The Complete Man (London, 2023), p. 310.