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Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
Fleming, Ian (1908-1964) Thunderball.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1961.
First edition, octavo; bound in black publisher's cloth, blind-stamped with a skeletal hand on the front board, spine gilt-lettered; with the chilling pictorial jacket designed by Richard Chopping (corners clipped, minor creasing at upper edge; one corner of front board bumped); 7 3/8 x 4 3/4 in.
Fleming's ninth installment in his James Bond series was the first novelization of an unrealized screenplay. Thunderball became the center of an intense Bond controversy when collaborators on the screenplay argued that Fleming plagiarized their elements in the book after the film project collapsed. The film's original producer, Kevin McClory, sued Fleming for copyright infringement only a few months after the book's release. Owing to his declining health, Fleming settled out of court, agreeing that the book be acknowledged as, "based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and the Author." First edition copies lack this credit line, whereas all subsequent editions name McClory and Whittingham on the title.
