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Ian Fleming. Autograph Draft of an Article Concerning Fleming's first book, Casino Royale, writing techniques, and...
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"How could I have written this bilge? What a fool the hero is..."
James Bond creator Ian Fleming's notes on his first book, Casino Royale
Ian Fleming. Autograph Draft of an Article Concerning Fleming's
first book, Casino Royale, writing techniques,
and life at the Goldeneye estate in Jamaica. No place [but
likely Jamaica], [circa Spring 1956]. This draft titled
"Bang Bang. Kiss Kiss" (not to be confused with Fleming's 1950
article by a similar name) was ultimately published as "Birth-pangs
of a Thriller" in W. H. Smith's Trade News on March 31,
1956. Five pages of bifolia; measuring 8.25 x 13.25 inches, lined
paper. Frequent revisions and deletions in the author's hand, minor
edgewear, small staple holes not affecting text, lightly toned,
minor foxing chiefly to margins, one bifolium (pages 1-4) just
starting to split along the integral fold.An enviable piece of Fleming's journalism history, featuring his dry, somewhat self-deprecating humor, and interesting insights into his writing process. "I really cannot remember exactly why I started to write thrillers." Fleming writes, "I was on my holiday in Jamaica in January 1951 - I built a house there after the war and I go there every year - and I think my mental hands were empty... although I am as lazy as most Englishmen are, I have a Puritanical dislike of idlers and a natural love of action. So I decided to write a book. The book had to be a thriller because that was all I had time for in my two months holiday and I knew there would be no room in my London life for writing books."
Why start with Casino Royale? "...the atmosphere of Casinos & gambling fascinates me and I know enough about spies to write about them... I sat down at my typewriter, & writing about 2000 words in three hours every morning, "Casino Royale" dutifully wrote itself. I rewrote nothing & made no corrections until the book was finished. If I had looked back at what I had written the day before I might have despaired at the mistakes in grammar & style, the repetitions, & the crudities. And I obstinately closed my mind to self-mockery and 'what will my friends say?'"
But even Fleming (and therefore Bond) has his doubts, "...I started to read it and I was ap[p]alled. How could I have written this bilge? What a fool the hero is...and the writing! Six 'horribles' on one page. Sentences screaming of banality. I groaned and started correcting...When I got back to London, I did nothing with the manuscript. I was too ashamed of it... Even under a pseudonym, someone would leak the ghastly fact that it was I who had written this adolescent tripe. There would be one of those sly paragraphs in the Londoner's Diary! Shame! Disgrace! Disaster! Resign from my clubs. Divorce. Leave the country."
It was only through the sharp eye- "'You've written a book,' he said accusingly"-and determination of William Plomer (of the publisher, Jonathan Cape) that James Bond was ever to see the light of day at all. "...[he] would tell me the horrible truth about the book without condemning me or being scornful or giving away my secret. I sent him the manuscript. He forced Capes to publish it."
Reportedly, another draft of this article was reproduced in the elusive book, Talk of the Devil, the final volume in the special edition of Fleming's works issued by the Queen Anne Press in 2008.
Fleming, "Birth-pangs of a Thriller," W.H. Smith's Trade News, March 31, 1956; Pearson, The Life of Ian Fleming, 1966.
Provenance: Sotheby's, London, July 20, 1989, lot 175.
Auction Info
2022 July 16 Historical Platinum Session Signature® Auction #6258 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
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16th
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