FLEMING, Ian (1908-1964). Thrilling Cities. London: Jonathan Cape, 1963.

FLEMING, Ian (1908-1964). Thrilling Cities. London: Jonathan Cape, 1963.

First edition, first impression, first state, presentation copy inscribed by Fleming to Noël Coward: ‘Noël / for your bluest pencil / Love / Ian.’ First serialized in The Sunday Times, the thirteen chapters of Fleming’s travels to locations such as Hong Kong, Tokyo, Las Vegas, New York, Geneva and Monte Carlo were intended to excite a reader’s desire for modern adventure. In his introduction, Fleming writes: ‘The essays entertained, and sometimes scandalized, the readers of the Sunday Times, and the editorial blue pencil scored through many a passage which has now been impurgated (if that is the opposite of expurgated) in the present text’ (p.7). Gilbert A16a (1.1).

Octavo (222 x 156mm). Erratum slip tipped in at p.223. Original cloth-backed boards, spine gilt, original dust-jacket with the laminate covering the entire width of the rear flap (minor nicks to head of spine panel). Provenance: Noël Coward (1899-1973; author’s presentation inscription, bookplate).

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