James Massey at WhatSellsBest.com is reporting that a first edition of Live and Let Die, the second James Bond book written by Ian Fleming, has vastly exceeded estimates and sold for $21,258. The book, first published in 1954, was expected to fetch only $6,000, but according to Massey early Bond books are in high demand and small supply–the edition of Live and Let Die only has 7,500 copies.
Past sales of the same book include:
2002: Winston Churchill’s personal copy, with a personal message from Fleming to Churchill, sold for $71,700
2009: A copy sold for $11,803
2012: Earlier this year, another auction sold a first edition for $8,500
These books (i.e., the Fleming originals) were out of print for many years, so it was fun when they re-released them a few years back; aside from the charming silliness of them, they’ve got great low tech 50′s details, and the only real problem is the our hero is a chain-smoking elbow bender who probably wouldn’t have been able to keep up with a bad guy fleeing a 7/11-Ian Fleming keeled over at 54 from trying to emulate this lifestyle-somebody should make a movie just like these books were written, it’d be great….