Inscribed to Thunderball's Pitman

London: Jonathan Cape, (1961). First edition. Presentation copy, warmly inscribed by Fleming on free endpaper to his close friends Hugo and Reine Pitman: "To Hugo & Reine Who were in at the birth! With love Ian." 8vo. 253, (1) pp. Publisher's dark brown cloth (Binding A), skeletal hand stamped in blind on front board, spine lettered in gilt; in original pictorial dust-jacket, designed by Robert Chopping, light edge wear, spine slightly darkened, small circular orange sticker at bottom of rear panel (applied by Lawrence Hughes, son-in-law of Hugh and Reine, denoting importance). Gilbert A9a (1.1)

A fine presentation copy, inscribed by Fleming to Hugo and Reine Pitman, close and lifelong friends who were "in at the birth" of James Bond.

Fleming and Hugo first met in London in the 1930s at the brokerage firm Rowe and Pitman (named after Hugo's father, the founder of the firm, Fred Pitman), where Hugo was a senior partner, and Ian, his apprentice and mentee. "An old Etonian (like most Rowe and Pitman partners) and Oxford rowing blue, [Hugo] was a charming gentleman of the old school. An accomplished painter and connoisseur of the arts, he may have helped bring Ian to the firm. For in the late 1920s he and his wife Reine, niece of the painter John [Singer] Sargent, had lived round the corner from Ian's mother in Mulberry Walk, Chelsea..." (Lycett, Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond, p. 72).

Fleming was not made for the brokerage world ("among the world's worst stockbrokers", as described by a colleague), but his time at the firm and his budding relationship with Hugo had lasting effects on his life, where he was introduced to London's upper society, and made important connections in the literary and intelligence worlds. It was with Pitman that Fleming first traveled to the United States, visiting New York in 1937, and where he connected with a Reuters friend, for whom he would go on to work for and develop his writing skills. Later, during Fleming's service in World War II, Pitman kept Fleming's stockbroker job open, and even paid him his partner's salary throughout the war. They would remain lifelong friends, with Hugo's family often staying with Ian at his Goldeneye home in Jamaica (see lot 194).

As a testament to their friendship, Fleming named the character of Chief of Immigration and Customs in this novel after Hugo (see p. 116).