It's 60 years since Ian Fleming published his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale. His greatest fan, Mike VanBlaricum, examines how six decades of cover artists have fulfilled their mission to identify 007 on book shelves around the world. Here he introduces images from the world's finest private collection of Bondiana, now on display in Illinois.
April 13, 1954: First edition, first impression, first issue, Jonathan Cape, UK
This was the first of Ian Fleming’s 14 James Bond books (12 novels, two collections of short stories) published by Jonathan Cape. The art for this first edition dustjacket was devised by Fleming with advice from Kemsley Newspaper Group’s in-house artist, Kenneth Lewis. It is based on the winning hand that Bond draws against Le Chiffre during their intense game of baccarat. As Fleming explains in chapter 13, 'It was a nine, a wonderful nine of hearts, the card known in gipsy magic as "a whisper of love, a whisper of hate", the card that meant almost certain victory for Bond'
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