THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN

First edition, first printing. Signed association copy, acquired from the dustwrapper artist Richard Chopping. Publisher's original black cloth with bronze titles to the spine, in the Richard Chopping illustrated dustwrapper. Green patterned endpapers. A very near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth and bronze titles bright and fresh. The contents, with the ownership signature of Richard Chopping to the front endpaper are otherwise clean throughout and without further inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the lightly rubbed and creased dustwrapper that is ever so slightly darkened to the extremities and remains without loss or tears. A fabulous association copy.

The Man With the Golden Gun was the last novel to be written by Ian Fleming, who died before making his final revisions. Posthumous publication was on 1st April 1965. "The ambitious cover design gave Chopping much trouble, as he could not show the whole of the gun on the front panel for fear of it being too small. He therefore had to extend it across to the rear panel, thus becoming the wraparound cover art. Without Fleming's instructions Chopping had more of a free rein in the dust-jacket design, which could now include some of his trademark flies. The idea of the snake's skull also came from Chopping, who was a lover of reptiles and amphibians and picked up on the symbolic appearance of a rainbow boa in the final showdown" - Jon Gilbert, Ian Fleming: The Bibliography. Provenance: acquired from Richard Chopping by Peter L. Stern (c.1987); private US collection. [Gilbert A13a (1.3 First impression, first issue, second state, binding B)], preceded only by the issue of 940 copies with the gilt stamped gun on the upper board.