J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
P R E S E N T A T I O N C O P I E S & M A N U S C R I P T S
ARTISTS ARCHIVE AND CORRESPONDENCE FOR ‘FOR YOUR EYES ONLY’ 22. FLEMING, Ian; CHOPPING, Richard ARCHIVE FOR THE DUSTWRAPPER OF ‘FOR YOUR EYES ONLY’ [October 14 1959 - April 14 1960]. A collection of correspondence and artwork, comprising eighteen letters between Fleming, Michael Howard (his contact at Cape) and Richard Chopping relating to the production of the dustwrapper design for ‘For Your Eyes Only’, and all Chopping’s preliminary sketches and drawings for the jacket. All housed in a custom-made blue cloth folder in a blue cloth chemise with blue morocco-backed slipcase. The correspondence is initiated by a typed letter signed from Fleming to Chopping dated 14 October 1959, ”We have a new jacket problem which I very much hope you will execute again...”. Chopping replies by return to say he is “in a frenzy of work... Some how I have got involved in nineteen commissions”, can he meet for lunch or a drink next Monday and that “I must warn you that prices have had to go up”. Fleming’s secretary (Mina Trueblood) replies to say Fleming has left the country and could probably meet for a drink on Monday. Fleming and Chopping having met, Chopping writes to Fleming on a page which he appears to have initially used as notes and questions on the jacket design. “Title - RED - “For Your eyes alone only”... Is Bond:- dark or fair... black eyebrows and black eyelashes and (cold) grey(-blue) eyes - possibly””. The note shows Chopping’s notion of the design brief given by Fleming taking shape, “I think I can do a cover in keeping with the other two... title and authors name in the same lettering or paper pinned to it and between them a hole.. through which an eye is looking.” The next letter in the sequence, dated 26 October, is a signed carbon of a letter from Fleming to Howard, enclosing and approving of Chopping’s proof design, “I think it is absolutely splendid... I really do think Dickie is an ingenious chap...”, refining the de - sign “I’m prepared to sacrifice the grey-blue of James Bond’s eyes for a brighter blue...”,
contain one or two alterations, on eight occasions Fleming makes substantial prose additions: to pages 23 (Bill Tanner’s disquisition on American gambling), 79 (Felix Leiter on “night eye” callus- es), 111 (the auctioneer’s patter), 119 (a racing announcement), 120 (ditto), 194 (Spang gives Bond a grilling), 221 (Bond receives Tiffany’s message), and 263 (the Captain’s remarks to Bond). Chapter 17 was originally called “Bond Forces the Race” but becomes “Thanks for the Ride”. Every now and then the nagging voice of the publisher’s reader can be heard, protesting at one point “but surely the world’s diamond centre is Amsterdam?” The first draft of Diamonds are Forever was typed by Fleming at Goldeneye early in 1955, both the top copy and carbon being now at the Lilly Library at the University of Indiana. This final draft was then typed by Fleming’s secretary Ulrica Knowles from the Goldeneye typescript, as a fair copy with this top copy going first to the publisher’s reader and then to Fleming for his final revisions. The carbon copy was sold by auction in December 2002. The carbon was marked up by the copy-editor, but had only “two annotations... apparently in the author’s own hand”. Original manuscripts and typescripts of Fleming’s major works are extremely rare on the market, this being one of only three full typescripts known in private hands, the other two The Man With The Golden Gun and You Only Live Twice, both containing significantly fewer authorial anno - tations.
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