Birds of the West Indies
London: Collins, 1971.
Second British edition of the birding book by James Bond, the American ornithologist whose name Ian Fleming took for his iconic spy protagonist. Association copy signed by the author on the half-title page and inscribed to one of the two illustrators: "For Earl Poole in appreciation of his contribution to this opuscule." 256 pp. Bound in publisher's red cloth stamped in gilt on spine. Near Fine with very light wear to extremities and small pencil mark to lower textblock edge; overopened at p. 97. In a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket with light wear and toning to edges.
A very crisp copy of the title that Ian Fleming, who was a keen birdwatcher, owned and made famous by association. As he later explained to the ornithologist's wife, "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 also 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."
Price: $5,800