Ian Fleming
During
World War II Fleming had mentioned to friends that he wanted to write a spy novel,
[1] but it was not until 17 February 1952 that he began to write his first novel,
Casino Royale. He started writing his book at his Jamaican home
Goldeneye, typing out 2,000 words in the morning, directly from his own experiences and imagination;
[2] he finished work on the manuscript in just over two months,
[3] completing it on 18 March 1952.
[4] Publishers
Jonathan Cape were initially reluctant to publish the book, but were persuaded by Fleming's brother
Peter (1907–1971), who had previously published material through them.
[5] On 13 April 1953
Casino Royale was released in the UK in hardcover, priced at
10s, 6d,
[6]with a cover that had been devised by Fleming himself.
[7] The first edition of 4,728 copies of
Casino Royale sold out in less than a month;
[7] a second print run the same month also sold out,
[6] as did a third run of more than 8,000 books published in May 1954.
[8] At the time, Fleming was the Foreign Manager for
Kemsley Newspapers, an organisation which owned
The Sunday Times. Upon accepting the job, Fleming requested that he be allowed three months holiday per year, which allowed him the freedom to write.
[1]
The novel centred on the exploits of
James Bond, an intelligence officer in the
00 section of the
Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond was also known by his code number, 007, and was a
Royal Naval Reserve Commander. Fleming took the name for his character from that of the American
ornithologist James Bond, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive
field guide Birds of the West Indies.
[9] Fleming based his creation on a number of individuals he came across during his time in the
Naval Intelligence Division during World War II, admitting that Bond "was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war".
[10] After the publication of
Casino Royale, Fleming used his annual holiday at his house in Jamaica to write another
Bond story;
[1] in total, between 1953 and 1966, two years after his death, twelve
Bond novels and two short-story collections were published, with the last two books—
The Man with the Golden Gun and
Octopussy and The Living Daylights—published posthumously
Short stories
In the summer of 1958, the
CBS television network commissioned Fleming to write episodes of a television show based on the James Bond character. This deal came about after the success of the
1954 television adaptation of
Casino Royale as an episode of the CBS television series
Climax![26] Fleming agreed to the deal, and began to write outlines for the series; however, CBS later dropped the idea.
[27] In January and February 1959 Fleming adapted four of the television plots into short stories and added a fifth story he had written in the summer of 1958.
[28] The stories were originally titled
The Rough with the Smooth, although this was changed to
For Your Eyes Only for publication, which included the subtitle
Five Secret Occasions in the Life of James Bond.
[26]
After Fleming's death, a second collection featuring two short stories was released,
Octopussy and The Living Daylights.
[29] When the paperback edition of the book was published, "The Property of a Lady" was also included
[30] and, by 2002, "007 in New York" had been added to the book by
Penguin Books.
Fictional chronologies
Independent scholar John Griswold constructed a "high-level chronology of James Bond's life", based on the logic of depicted events and actual time periods referred to in the books.
[43][nb 4] This chronology differs from the publication sequence.
[44] Griswold also deliberately discounts the chronological significance of actual historic events mentioned in the novels and stories, arguing that Fleming made such references for effect without synchronising them accurately to his fiction.
[45] Fellow
Bond-scholar Henry Chancellor also worked through the
Bond chronology, which broadly agrees with Griswold, although there are differences. Chancellor noted that "Fleming was always vague about dates", although the novels are supposed to be set in order of publication.
Publication Order of Ian Fleming “James Bond” Books
Casino Royale (1953)
Live and Let Die (1954)
Moonraker (1955)
Diamonds Are Forever (1956)
From Russia with Love (1957)
Doctor No (1958)
Goldfinger (1959)
For Your Eyes Only (1960)
Thunderball (1961)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1962)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963)
You Only Live Twice (1964)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1965)
Octopussy and the Living Daylights (1966)
But they have always gravitated back to Fleming, whether as a studio decision - or on the part of the actor chosen to play him (such as Dalton, who insisted on reading the Bond books in preparation, for example.)
