2-DESTINATION LEGEND
the morning of the third Tuesday of January 1952, ten weeks after his marriage, Fleming is on holiday in Goldeneye when he decided to start writing a spy novel. On his desk is a book, Birds of the West Indies, written dall'ornitologo James Bond. That seems the perfect name for the protagonist has in mind. So, for ten weeks, Fleming writes incessantly, following a ritual that remains unchanged over the years. He wrote every morning between nine and noon, while the afternoon from 17 to 18.30, revise the manuscript. Why Fleming you decide to pursue a career as a writer so late? He jokingly assert I did it to distract from the shock of the marriage. One thing is certain: the author writes in complete freedom Casino Royale is the title of his first book.
When finished, Fleming does read the manuscript to his friend William Plomer, which in turn rotates the publisher Jonathan Cape. In August of 1952 was born the eldest son of Ian, Robert Caspar.
On 17 September the same year Cape Fleming reaches out to establish the terms of the contract. With painstaking meticulousness the new author can even check a percentage of revenue equal to ten percent for the first 10,000 copies and 20 percent from 20,000. Tireless starts now looking for an American publisher, not an easy undertaking, because the manuscript was rejected by three publishers (including Doubleday, Norton, Knopf).
His new career as a writer, however, is now playing. In the fall of 1953, again at Goldeneye, Fleming conceived her second novel, "Live and Let Die . Are you satisfied with the ease with which the book was born and the plot seems to articulate the best of the previous episode. Meanwhile, the draft of Casino Royale is ready to go to press. Fleming puts to work, sending the book to friends and acquaintances. To his surprise, the famous writer Somerset Maugham praises him with a letter that highlights his ego. But despite the generally positive reviews the first edition of Casino Royale sells only 4,750 copies and did not reveal the source of income that its creator had hoped. Fleming did not lose heart and continues his work as the Sunday Times, travels in the United States, where he has since managed to find a publisher (Macmillan), shaking an important friendship with Roald Dahl, part of a consignment of caving in the Pyrenees, finally passing the summer of 1953 at Villa Mauresque hosting Maugham. In the meantime, start thinking The grand slam death. Chosen as the location for this episode and the cliffs of the main Kingsdown Deal, where Drax his rocket designs. It is with this work that the identification of Fleming and Bond becomes total. From this moment on every trip and experience that the writer makes in his private life trasmigrerà by osmosis in the affairs of Bond. In the autumn of 1953 Ian accepts the Sunday column of gossip Atticus in the Sunday Times. Although he hates the receptions and worldliness, he does his new job with great enthusiasm, accumulating information that will be useful in the preparation of the subsequent novels.
The 1954 is a key year for him in April, the critics are saying that Live and Let Die has kept its promises of Casino Royale. The author begins to wonder: his literary creature could emulate the exploits of Sherlock Holmes or Hercules Poirot. His friendship with Somerset Maugham in a collaboration of the latter leads to the Sunday edition of the Sunday Times, which culminates with the publication in 15 episodes of his new novel.
early June Fleming completes the review of the grand slam of death and gives it to William Plomer who is enthusiastic, while selling the rights to Casino Royale for $ 1,000 to the Columbia Broadcasting who want to make a transposition television. The sales figures of the two previous works, both in England and in America, they are not encouraging. In June the same year, Fleming began to write Diamonds Are Forever. His friend from Eton, Philip browing, working at the diamond company De Beers. Fascinated by the international trade of jewelry, Fleming outlines the plot of the new episode. Once again the setting is in America, but this time instead of New York and Florida, location of Live and Let Die, Fleming chose the Las Vegas casinos, horse racing at Saratoga and highways of Los Angeles. A boost to his career comes by that totally disinterested that the great noir writer Raymond Chandler offers to his friend English. The creator of Philip Marlowe wrote a tremendous tribute to the grand slam of death " Ian Fleming is the writer most effective and incisive literary genre that I think that England is still called thriller. "Fleming ponders a long time but to terminate the adventures of his hero. In fact, he feels exhausted and disappointed by the results of the sale of his books. In addition, the total identification with his character led him to gather information and experience first surrogate those adventures later describes in astonishing ways. This exhausts the creative process not only physically but also psychologically.
As James Bond can not earn enough, Fleming decided to get rid of him who now sarcastically calls "that cardboard puppet." The fifth and final novel in his intentions should have been the epitaph of Bond and for this would be a more serious and introspective. In From Russia with love, according to his intentions, the SMERSH would attract 007 in a death trap using as bait a beautiful girl. The hero would fall into the trap and with an unexpected ending, it would not be able to get by. The story would have had the narrative center of the plots of the Kremlin that Fleming had got to know well during his stay in Russia for the agency Reuter. The setting, however, would be Istanbul. The choice falls on Turkey as his friend Sir Ronald Howe at Scotland Yard have to travel to Istanbul for a meeting of Interpol. For Fleming is a unique opportunity. During his stay at Goldeneye ends Fleming From Russia with Love then follows his friend Ivar Bryce in a brief three-day trip to Inagua, Bahamas, to admire the pink flamingos. The strange island, with a gray swamp, only sixty centimeters deep, the inspiration for the macabre Dr Julius No. Inagua shelter would become Crab Key, the scene of another firm of Bond in Dr No . Once
Fleming returned to London starts to suffer from his nagging sciatica. Accept therefore take shelter at Enton Hall at the London Clinic, a nursing home into shape for the brokers with physiotherapy and a strict diet, no alcohol. Here again the experience will be useful a few years later, when his ship to detoxify Bond in Thunderball .
Decided to abandon her baby, Fleming sold the film rights for $ 6,000 at Casino Royale in Gregory Ratoff and with the proceeds you buy a spectacular Thunderbird from 190 horses.
Leaving From Russia with love Fleming begins to doubt whether the result literary work. Bond wanted to make a real human being but his character is once again devoid of humor, two-dimensional. The reviews are lukewarm but given the public's growing Fleming changed his mind and decides to give a new opportunity to his cardboard puppet. His future novels, however, would be pure entertainment, without literary ambitions whatsoever.
Towards the end of November 1954, something unexpected happens to cause a huge advertisement for the writer. After the Suez Canal crisis of British Prime Minister Anthony Eden fell into a deep state of stress. The doctors recommend a holiday, possibly out of England. The Colonial Secretary Alan Lennox-Boyd, a close friend of Fleming, suggests the prime minister to go to rest in Jamaica, Goldeneye. Fleming course provides his house and since then the press is poured before the little villa, however austere and devoid of comfort, to spy on the conditions of the illustrious guest. The ensuing media uproar, the Daily Express takes the decision to serialise From Russia with love. The response was immediate and convincing the publisher to print the paperback edition of the immediately preceding volumes, which have a surge in sales. After five long years has finally started the race to the best seller. Two Fleming identifies the factors to explain his unexpected success. The first is that the popular audience, the one who buys the paperback edition of the adventures of 007, is fascinated by the environment and the luxury that surrounds James Bond. The second is the popularity acquired by Fleming in the newspapers with the story of the holiday the prime minister. The combination of Fleming-Bond time is indissoluble, is intended to turn into myth. the summer of 1957, finally abandoned the intentions of letting her die hen that lays golden eggs, Ian begins to work Goldfinger, where he expresses his admiration for wealth.
the end of 1958 accepts a deal with CBS for a TV series in 32 episodes devoted to her character. The occasion for him is essential, both for economic reasons than for literary reasons. Fleming, in fact, more and more difficult to write 70,000 words of fiction as usual is pretty easy to write stories. Taking advantage of the Risk writes, Landscape and death and For Your Eyes Only . Along with A quantum security , written during a return trip from the Seychelles, and The rarity Hildenbrand, stories are grouped in a single volume entitled For Your Eyes Only .
In the fall of 1958, the writer knows the filmmaker Kevin McClory. His friend Ivar Bryce suddenly producer and has funded the first work by McClory, The Boy and The Bridge . The two become friends, and it is estimated that in short the idea to make the first Bond film, produced by Bryce. The collaboration, however, begins to crack after a few months. The difficulty in finding a good subject and the commercial flop of The Boy and The Bridge, are wavering Fleming and Bryce. On the advice of that Fleming was involved in the project also screenwriter Jack Whittingam. Ian Bryce also advised to contact the director Anthony Asquith and then Alfred Hitchcock, no longer convinced of the artistic abilities of McClory. The situation becomes increasingly muddled and stress that much Fleming took advantage of the proposed new owner of the Sunday Times, the Canadian Roy Thomson, agreed to leave for five weeks around the world to make a report in installments, then published in a book The cities of the title thrill. Fleming and McClory Whittingam first spring for the trip, then write Thunderball. Without worrying about the consequences he conceived the story as "the book of the film, the novel, the script and Whittingam McClory and adding some new situations such as hospitalization for Bond, so throwing in a legal mess that will last many years.
McClory sues Fleming for plagiarism. The legal dispute is a blow to the writer that on April 12, 1961 is affected by the first heart attack while in a meeting on Tuesday morning with the entire editorial staff of the Sunday Times. The doctors, during his long convalescence, the other facing a lifestyle that includes a total ban on drinking and smoking, as well as long periods of rest. Fleming followed the advice for a few weeks and then resumed his bad habits. The event, however, has severely weakened and it is precisely for this reason that when the Canadian producer Harry Saltzman, with his partner Albert Broccoli Italian American (who has a serious contact with the United Artists), is proposed for the purchase of film rights of all his novels, he accepts the offer. Experience with McClory has deeply touched and he refrains from interfering in the work of Dr. No (in Italian Licence to Kill), the first title chosen for the movie series. Nor is involved in the choice of the protagonist. At the request suggests the name of David Niven, his close friend, but his contribution to film the events of 007 confined to that.
Meanwhile the cause of plagiarism is simply a transaction between the parties in which he states that McClory's name must be present in any film version of Thunderball . Also in 1961
open permanently Fleming to the doors of success but also those of the disease. On March 17, the character of James Bond gets a spectacular launch. Life magazine publishes a list of ten favorite novels of the President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Alongside the classics of literature as The Red and the Black Stendhal , ninth figure From Russia with love. Fleming had met Kennedy at a dinner in Washington a year before but had never imagined such an honor. This news makes off the sales of his novels in America.
early 1962 Fleming writes in Jamaica The spy who loved me . His experiment to tell the story in first person the protagonist of the story, Bond breaking and making only the second part, is considered a failure for the public, who wants 007 more in action. With Secret Service he therefore returns to the traditional formula bondiana.
In early 1963 he traveled to Japan, scene of his new book, You Only Live Twice , along with his friend Richard Hughes and Tora "Tiger" Saito. Meanwhile, the films based on Dr No and From Russia with Love achieved worldwide success and Fleming decided to sell 51 percent of Glidrose, amounting to 100,000 pounds, to his friend Sir Jack Campbell of Booker Brothers. A pittance, if you think of Bond as he gains only in merchandising. But the heart continues to harass Fleming writes Man with the Golden Gun very slowly, exhausted, without having even the power to review it.
On April 27, 1964 his mother dies. Fleming follows eighteen days later in the night of August 12. It will not live to see Goldfinger, the film that would finally sealed the birth of the myth of Bond film and its author.
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