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Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,000
Fleming, Ian (1908-1964) Casino Royale.
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1954.
First American edition, first issue, octavo; publisher's olive green cloth, spine and front board lettered in red; in the unclipped first issue dust jacket with squared corners (jacket spine sunned, verso toned, foxing to lower panel, minor creasing, few small closed tears; one or two creases from a paperclip; endpapers possibly renewed, corners lightly rubbed); 8 x 5 1/4 in.
Fleming's first novel and genesis of Special Agent 007 sold out within weeks of its first appearance in London. Incredibly, the title did not have the same effect on American readers. It was rejected three times by New York publishers before Macmillan accepted. Initial sales struggled, so much so that the book was retitled You Asked For It, which also did not work. Fortunately, sales gradually grew throughout the late 1950s, allowing Fleming to work on a series of sequels, now all universally known. This modest beginning to the Bond canon is truly baffling, especially considering the franchise has since produced one of the most iconic figures in both literary and cinematic history. Today, one would be hard put to find an individual unfamiliar with even the protagonist's signature cocktail order.
