Thrilling Cities

Jonathan Cape, 1963. Octavo. Original green wrappers with the publisher's device repeated in white, spine and front wrapper lettered in black. With proof dust jacket. Housed in a custom blue morocco-backed folding box. 48 pages of illustrations from black and white photos. Minor rubbing to edges; a fine copy. Extremities of the very good jacket worn with minor loss, and some sunning to the spine. Uncorrected proof. A scarce Ian Fleming proof: only 175 copies were printed, being a much lower print run than many of the James Bond proofs. This is one of two variants and is notably thinner than the published book. A proof printed on thicker paper, similar to the final books, was also issued, although some of these thicker versions did not have the plates bound in. The dust jacket, designed by Paul Davis, differs considerably to the second proof-version and the published jacket; the lettering for this proof jacket is blood red rather than the shocking pink and the spine panel is also printed in red. The front flap of the proof features a jacket credit not printed on the published book, with "proof only" details. The flaps are entirely uncut; the regular book jacket has its corners clipped. The proof's rear flap is entirely blank; the published jacket flap has a printed list of the James Bond novels. The proof book contains some differences to the hardback, mostly of a typographical nature; some omissions appear on the copyright page, the final leaf of text differs and there are no picture credits printed at the rear. Originally published as two series of articles for the Sunday Times, first from 24 January to 28 February 1960 and then from 31 July to 4 September 1960, Thrilling Cities was the product of a five-week, all-expenses-paid trip to visit the world's most exciting cities. Travelling to thirteen cities, from Hong Kong to Monte Carlo, Fleming gathered material that would furnish much of the backdrop and research for the five Bond novels and seven short stories that would follow. This copy is from the significant Ian Fleming collection of Martin Schøyen (b.1940), with his bookplate. Schøyen's private collection of manuscripts, which span all cultures and all time periods, is one of the largest and most comprehensive of its kind. Gilbert A16a. The Schøyen Collection No. 188.