FROM Ibookcollector Newsletter # 91

Love Story from Napoleon

This week a single manuscript page of the final draft of Clisson and Eugenie a love story written by Napoleon Bonaparte, when he was 26, was sold at auction for €24,000 (£17,000) at the Osenat auction house in France. The page had belonged to a private French collection. Never published in Napoleon’s lifetime, the story was supposedly based on his romance with Désirée Clary.

Note - painting of Napoleon from Wikipedia website.

The ultimate Christmas present for 007 fans

Do you identify with James Bond? Are you captivated by his exploits and his sang froid? If so why not give yourself the ultimate gift this Christmas, a first edition Ian Fleming signed by the author? On Thursday 6th December, Bloomsbury Auctions is selling a near complete set of first edition Bond titles; most are signed, many have inscriptions, some have signed bookplates while others are simply unsigned first editions. Prices range from £300-22,000. Amongst the 33 lots the highlights include a first edition, first issue of the first Bond book, Casino Royale, 1953 (lot 42) with the inscription: To / the power behind / the publishers’ throne! / from / the author / May 1953 (estimated to fetch £18,000-22,000). Lot 43 will also set pulses racing, Live and Let Die, 1954 was Fleming’s second Bond book and is inscribed: ‘To / Donald Crowther / Who Helped with the Coin! / from / The Author / 1954’ (estimate £8,000-12,000). Presumably ‘the coin’ referred to, is one of those sold illegally by ‘Mr Big’ in the story. Other interesting inscriptions include the one in Thunderball,1961 (lot 50) which reads: To / Jack / By Appointment, / M.O. to the SIS! / Ian (SIS being the Secret Intelligence Service) and it carries an estimate of £3,500-4,500. The next lot, Moonraker of 1955 is estimated £5,000-7,000 and is inscribed: ‘To / E.B. Strauss / This ‘Tagebuch eines halbwüchsigen Spiones!’ / Ian Fleming / 1955. The Spy Who Loved Me, 1962, which has an estimate of £3,000-4,000 is inscribed to Leonard Russell, Fleming’s friend and late literary editor of The Sunday Times and is also inscribed by Roger Moore, one of the actors who played Bond (lot 51).

These books are made even more desirable because of their condition, and it is interesting that the inscription ‘from the author’, was Fleming’s preferred method of signing his earlier titles.

Bloomsbury Auctions’ sale of Literature, Manuscripts & Modern First Editions is a truly eclectic mix; not only does it also include first editions by J K Rowling, J R R Tolkien and Philip Pullman but also off-beat items such as a letter from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to a medium who claimed to have taken dictation from the Greek ascetic and philosopher, Apollonius of Tyana (estimate £300-400) or even the inscribed bible of the last hangman Albert Pierrepoint (estimate £200-250).

Other major items in this sale which will undoubtedly cause a stir, are the heavily annotated bible of William Wilberforce (lot 287), the philanthropist and abolitionist of slavery, whose bill was passed two hundred year ago this year (estimate £20,000-30,000). Lot 266 is the journal of Admiral John Byng, who was executed by firing squad for neglect of duty.

This is Byng’s handwritten account of his command of the Mediterranean fleet from March to October 1748. Byng’s death was subject of the celebrated remark by Voltaire, ‘in this country, it is good, from time to time to kill an admiral to encourage the others’ (Dans ce pays ci, c’est bon, de temps en temps, de tuer un amiral pour encourager les autres.’) Discovered by a distinguished admiral trawling around the bookshops of the Old Kent Road in the 1890s, the journal was sold to him as ‘Journal of a Naval Officer unknown’ and it has been in private English hands ever since. The National Maritime Museum has a copy of this manuscript, but Bloomsbury Auctions is selling the original with an estimate of £8,000-12,000.

Note - James Bond pic is Ian Fleming's image of Bond taken from Wikipedia website

Penguin set to publish new 007 book

Penguin has recently unveiled the new jacket for its 'James Bond' book Devil May Care written by Sebastian Faulks (or Faulkes as The Times described him) who took up where Ian Fleming left off some forty years ago.

The new book, which was commissioned by Fleming’s family, will be published on 28 May 2008 to mark the centenary of the author’s birth. Faulks, who is the author of Birdsong and On Green Dolphin Street , said that he had written 80 percent of his 007 novel in Fleming’s style.