FLEMING, Ian. For Your Eyes Only: Five Secret Occasions in the Life of James Bond (First edition)

London: Jonathan Cape, 1960. First edition, first impression. Octavo. pp. [8], 252. Original black cloth, silver eye blocked to the upper board, silver lettering to spine. In the original Richard Chopping illustrated dust jacket. The cloth remains clean and bright with the silver eye motif and spine lettering fresh. Internally crisp and clean with only light, natural toning to the page edges. The unclipped dust jacket retains the original 15s. net price and remains bright, showing light rubbing and a little wear to the extremities with some toning to the flaps, housed in a protective archival sleeve. An attractive unrestored example of one of the scarcer Bond first editions. A very good copy.

The eighth James Bond book and Fleming’s only collection of short stories during his lifetime. Published on 11 April 1960, it gathers five tales—From a View to a Kill, For Your Eyes Only, Quantum of Solace, Risico, and The Hildebrand Rarity—each expanding Bond’s character beyond the full-length novels. Several of the stories were originally conceived for a proposed James Bond television series for CBS before being reworked by Fleming into prose. Richard Chopping’s memorable dust jacket, featuring a watchful eye peering through a wooden door, perfectly captures the atmosphere of secrecy and espionage that defines the collection and is regarded as one of the finest designs in the Jonathan Cape Bond series.

[L3 10B]