Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies
[Philadelphia]: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1936.
First edition. Signed on the dedication page by James Bond, the American ornithologist whose name Ian Fleming took for his iconic spy protagonist. Fleming, a keen birdwatcher himself, had a copy of Bond's guide and he later explained to the ornithologist's wife that "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born." In a Reader's Digest interview, Fleming noted, "I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest sounding name I could find, and James Bond, was something more interesting, like Peregrine Carruthers. Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department."
Bound in publisher's grayish-blue cloth lettered in gilt; lacking the dust jacket. Very Good or better with light worming to cloth at edges, cloth lightly soiled and worn. Pages toned, with owner name and foxing to preliminary sheets, several light pencil check marks to margins throughout. Hinge at rear index slightly exposed. A very scarce book in the first edition, and more so signed.
Price: $16,000.00