Jonathan Cape, London, 1954
FIRST Edition, FIRST Printing, FIRST State of LIVE AND LET DIE with a beautiful clean book and a stunning Near Fine FIRST EDITION, FIRST STATE DUST JACKET, withOUT the Kenneth Lewis design credit slug to the front flap. The earliest dust jackets issued made no mention of Kenneth Lewis and at some point later but still during the first print run, the need was recognized to credit his work. Copies of the first issue in such condition as the present example are extremely hard to find. Please inquire if you would like to see large High Resolution images.
DESCRIPTION
Beautiful clean near fine book with a scarce dust jacket IN THE FIRST OF THE THREE STATES, WITHOUT ANY MENTION OF THE ARTIST KENNETH LEWIS ON THE INSIDE FRONT FLAP. Live And Let Die is the second book in the James Bond series, after Casino Royale.
Original crisp black covered boards in beautiful condition with sharp corners and no edgewear. The gilt medallion and titles are still bright and vibrant with none of the otherwise more common oxidizing which is more typical of this title. The binding is tight and square. The end papers are clean with but a small blemish and an erased owner name. Otherwise, no bookstore stamps and no bookplates. The internal pages are crisp, clean, bright and flat with no stains, no writing, no bent pages, no torn pages, and no foxing. A beautiful clean, crisp, tidy example of this elusive first edition, first impression Fleming book with no issues. Please see images for details.
The book comes with a stunning near fine original first edition dust jacket in the FIRST state. The jacket benefited from very slight restoration to the very outer spine tips, and as such presents in near fine/fine condition. The vibrantly colored dust jacket has no rips, no chips, no stains and no foxing. The jacket is not price clipped and has a stated price to the front and rear flaps of 10s 6d. net. Three states of the true first edition dust jacket were printed for LIVE AND LET DIE, all 3 states of the first edition jacket look identical with the exception of the one sentence credit statement to Kenneth Lewis, the dust jacket designer located on the inside front flap (please see our resource guide on collecting the James Bond series of books which shows the placement of the blurb). The true first state does NOT contain the dust jacket credit. Please see the many detailed images.
A lovely well priced example of this title in the scarce FIRST state. Presents beautifully on the shelf, in addition to making a wonderful investment.
