Moonraker

Moonraker

Ian Fleming, 1955

FLEMING, Ian (1908-1964). Moonraker. London: Jonathan Cape, 1955.



First edition, first state in an unrestored jacket. This is first state, with perfect type on page 10 and on preferred, thicker paper. The front free endpaper bears a tiny date stamp, 7 Apr 1955—the date of publication. Moonraker was the most self-consciously autobiographical of the Bond novels to date. When Raymond Chandler\'s signaled his approval of Fleming\'s previous book, Live and Let Die, \"the real importance of the friendship went beyond the mere restoration of Fleming\'s confidence in James Bond. It quickly seems to have changed the whole attitude of Fleming to his hero and his work and to have made him decide that his next book [ie. Moonraker], instead of finishing off Bond for good, would go to the opposite extreme\" (Pearson). Pearson, The Life of Ian Fleming, p. 313.



Octavo. Original black boards, lettered in silver; dust jacket by Kenneth Lewis after Ian Fleming (faint circular stain to upper panel, toning, mild edge-wear).