505

Ian Fleming Typed Letter Signed

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,000.00 USD
Ian Fleming Typed Letter Signed

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Auction Date:2021 Jan 13 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
TLS signed “Yours ever, Ian Fleming,” one page both sides, 8 x 10, Kemsley House letterhead, June 22, 1950. Letter to journalist and spy Antony Terry of the British Press Centre, in full: "My congratulations on your election to the secretaryship of the Press Association are tempered by my knowledge of the pestilential duties this will involve for you.

However, I am sure your appointment will greatly benefit the Association, and whenever needed I shall be glad to make a loud noise on your behalf at the Foreign Office. Unfortunately we must realise that these decisions are tripartite, and unless your Association can get together with the French and American Association, I cannot see that we will shift the Control Commission.

We are publishing Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick's photograph in the 'Sunday Times' Portrait Gallery on Sunday, and I would be inclined to make this an excuse to have a talk with him and to tell him where we now stand.

Tell him that this is not a question of blackmail, but that devaluation has already put a very heavy burden on our foreign service and this German crisis comes so closely on its heels that the economics of Mercury are causing grave concern to the Chairman.

It is no good trying to soak the rich newspaper proprietors, either here or in America where, for instance, the 'Herald Tribune' is already on the edge of the red. These newspaper companies are public companies run on budgets like every other business. Costs are rising everywhere, and at the same time interest in foreign news amongst the British public is giving way fast to the great domestic issues which face the country and are likely to go on facing it.

In the circumstances the easiest target for economies lies in the foreign service, and it is only by the most prudent housekeeping that I have so far been able to avoid the axe. doubling the cost of our representation in Germany is so startling a luxury that it may well be necessary for the 'Sunday Times' and the rest of our papers to rely on agency.

I repeat that this is not an attempt at blackmailing the Control Commission, but a simple statement of fact. If Kirkpatrick argues that we should maintain our German coverage at the expense of coverage from other parts of the world, I would be interested to have his suggestions, but with your knowledge of Mercury you will probably be able to defeat this argument.

Sorry to slip this apparent death-warrant into your hand, but, in fact, I do not think it will necessarily affect you personally. It will merely mean a vast pruning of our total output from Germany and a drastic curtailment of your movements and wordage." Fleming adds the salutation in his own hand. In fine condition, with a light paperclip stain to the top edge, and two files to the left side.