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Lot #425
Ian Fleming

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Estimate: $1000+
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Description

TLS signed “Yours ever, Ian.,” one page, 8 x 10, 4, Old Mitre Court, Fleet Street letterhead, April 25, 1963. Letter to journalist and spy Antony Terry in Bonn, Germany, in full: "Jonathan Cape is at last turning my Thrilling Cities into a book and I find The Sunday Times has lost the splendid Corbusier photographs of the new Berlin which you got for me—i.e. the living machine apartment block and the pregnant oyster. Would you be terribly kind and dig out some fresh copies, or get some friend in Berlin to do it, and whizz them over? Sorry not to have seen you for such years and please give me a buzz the next time you are in London. You are writing just as well as ever I am glad to see, and I read you as always with much zest." In very good to fine condition, with scattered light creasing, a block of light toning, and staple holes to the upper left corner. While working as foreign manager of the Kemsley newspaper group's Sunday Times, Fleming hired Terry to be posted in Germany. Utilizing this legitimate news organization as a cover, Fleming also ran an intelligence outfit known as Mercury which used foreign correspondents to gather information in sensitive foreign zones—Terry was one such correspondent. In this particular letter, written well into his days as a successful spy novelist, Fleming references his travelogue Thrilling Cities, published in November 1963, as well as the 'pregnant oyster' building in Berlin.

Auction Info

  • Auction Title: Fine Autographs and Artifacts
  • Dates: #547 - Ended March 06, 2019





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