"A Valentine's Day Gift for the Book-Lover: 'The Spy Who Loved Me - 1st Edition/1st Printing'"

If you’re looking for the perfect present for your literary-minded loved one, look no further than “The Spy Who Loved Me – 1st Edition/1st Printing” by Ian Fleming.

The Spy Who Loved Me was published in the UK on 16 April 1962 as a hardcover edition by publishers Jonathan Cape; it was 221 pages long and cost 15 shillings. Artist Richard Chopping once again undertook the cover art, and raised his fee from the 200 guineas he had charged for Thunderball, to 250 guineas. The artwork included a commando knife which was borrowed from Fleming’s editor, Michael Howard at Jonathan Cape. The Spy Who Loved Me was published in the US by Viking Books on 11 April 1962 with 211 pages and costing $3.95.

The reception to the novel was so bad that Fleming wrote to Michael Howard at Jonathan Cape, to explain why he wrote the book: “I had become increasingly surprised to find my thrillers, which were designed for an adult audience, being read in schools, and that young people were making a hero out of James Bond … So it crossed my mind to write a cautionary tale about Bond, to put the record straight in the minds particularly of younger readers … the experiment has obviously gone very much awry”.

Fleming subsequently requested that there should be no reprints or paperback version of the book, and for the British market no paperback version appeared until after Fleming’s death. Because of the heightened sexual writing in the novel, it was banned in a number of countries. In the US the story was also published in Stag magazine, with the title changed to Motel Nymph.

The book itself is handsome first edition/first Impression in Fine condition in alike, crisp dust-jacket without fading, vibrant and bright colors. Variant copy with printer’s quad mark on the title page. It was basis for the movie with Roger Moore in his third James Bond role, Barbara Bach as Major Anya Amasova (Agent Triple X) and Curd Jürgens as Karl Stromberg.

Although Fleming had insisted that no film should contain anything of the plot of the novel, the steel-toothed character of Horror was included, although under the name Jaws.