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IAN FLEMING (1908-1964).

Currency:GBP Category:Memorabilia Start Price:NA Estimated At:300.00 - 500.00 GBP
IAN FLEMING (1908-1964).
Auction starting at 5pm (GMT) Jan 10, 2020.
9am (Pacific)

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For someone with zero literary aspirations, Ian Fleming managed to create the most influential spy character of all time, and all with such apparent ease. From the outset the novels were criticised for being, as The New Statesman’s critic reviewed them, a litany of “sex, snobbery and sadism - without doubt the nastiest book I have ever read”. His wife called them “cheap pornography”. Even Fleming referred to his debut, 1953’s Casino Royale as an “oafish opus”. Yet they were all best-sellers - regardless of their wavering quality. The revelation that President Kennedy loved them made Fleming the biggest-selling crime writer in the US. Even The New Statesman begrudgingly acknowledged that Fleming had created “a social phenomenon of some importance”, not least a reinvention of the very British regard for the very British literary everyman heroes of the pre-war era, from Bulldog Drummond to Richard Hannay. But, with banking in the family, Fleming knew how to follow the money regardless. No great fan of the movies – Fleming only lived to see the first two, and had wanted David Niven or Roger Moore for the role – he nevertheless appreciated their influence, and is said to have in part modeled his later literary portrayal of Bond around Sean Connery’s performance. Likewise he struck a canny deal with an investment company by selling them the rights to 51% of all future royalties for his books for a then sizable £100,000, conscious that much of his income would come less from books as the box office. Ian Fleming's autograph is mounted and framed in a gold antique style frame. Supplied with coa.