Lot 93: FLEMING, Ian (1908-1964). Casino Royale. London: Jonathan Cape, 1953.

8 o. Original black cloth-like boards, decorated and lettered in red; pictorial dust jacket after a design by Ian Fleming (minor fading to spine panel, and very minor chipping to ends of spine panel and edges). Provenance : John Hayward (presentation inscription). FIRST EDITION OF FLEMING'S FIRST JAMES BOND NOVEL. A FINE PRESENTATION COPY, WITH A WITTY INSCRIPTION TO ONE OF HIS CLOSEST FRIENDS, JOHN HAYWARD, on front free endpaper: "To John This prenatal 1st Edition of the first of the collected works of Balzac." Ian Fleming's inspiration for Casino Royale was a baccarat battle Fleming played in Lisbon during the Second World War against several Portuguese men. According to one biographer, Fleming whispered at the table to his friend John Godfrey: "Just suppose these fellows were German agents -- what a coup it would be if we cleaned them out entirely!" (John Pearson, The Life of Ian Fleming, London, 1966, p. 131). Hayward has made numerous pencil corrections to the text; he challenges Fleming's word choices, points out holes in the plot, and, at the baccarat scene (page 80), amends Fleming's calculations to scores. John Hayward was one of Fleming's closest friends. They were neighbors in Carlyle Mansions in the respectable Cheyne Walk area of London: Fleming had the flat above Hayward and his roommate, T.S. Eliot. (Hayward was the titular dedicatee of Eliot's Four Quartets, 1943). Along with Percy Muir, Hayward was the editor of the Book Collector, a small but respected bibliographical journal owned by Lord Kemsley. In 1952, Fleming bought the journal, then called Book Handbook from Kemsley. He was pleased to call the magazine his, but left Hayward and Muir in charge of all editorial decisions. The journal remains the leading bibliographical journal for the book trade, and Hayward's bibliography English Poetry: A Catalogue of First and Early Editions (Cambridge, 1947) is one of the most important publications on the subject.