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." Fleming noted in an interview, "I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find; 'James Bond' was much better than something more interesting, like 'Peregrine Carruthers'. Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure—an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department." Bound in publisher's grayish-blue cloth lettered in gilt; lacking the dust jacket. Good, with lean to binding, nearly half of the cloth on front cover is lifted from the board. Pages toned and several hinges exposed. A very scarce book in the first edition, and more so signed.
Price: $12,500