The Sign of The Fish

London: Collins, 1960. [Literary essays] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.255; [1], blank. Illustrated with plates. Publisher's red cloth, pictorial jacket. A fine book in a near fine, price-clipped jacket, with a few small nicks to extremities. The Sign of the Fish is a study of the art of writing, and a critical analysis of the creative and artistic character, from the respected writer and social historian Peter Quennell. His subjects within include Dame Edith Sitwell, T.S. Eliot and Augustus John, and he was part of the 'Fleming circle' of eminent literary figures which included Cyril Connolly, Cecil Beaton, Noel Coward, Evelyn Waugh and Stephen Spender. The text features the printed dedication "To my friends at Goldeneye", Ian Fleming's Jamaican home where the book came together, drawing on Quennell's writings in Horizon, Spectator and London Magazine. In the acknowledgements, thanks is given "to the directors of the Queen Anne Press" (owned and run by Ian Fleming). This copy is part of the comprehensive collection assembled by Jon Gilbert (pencilled signature within), whose comprehensive guide to the works of Ian Fleming (2012) won the 16th Breslauer Prize for bibliography. Gilbert, Jon. Ian Fleming: The Bibliography, page 639.