16 replies to this topic

[Revelator]

Sotheby's has just auctioned off a corrected typescript of The Man With the Golden Gun for 65,000 pounds. I hope the rich bastard who won it will donate the document to a good research library!
You can look at two sample pages here. And you certainly should, because the pages contain Fleming's own handwritten revisions. They show that Fleming added the final two lines after completing his first draft.

"At the same time, he knew, deep down, that love from Mary Goodnight, or from any other woman, was not enough for him. It would be like taking 'a room with a view'. For James Bond, the same view would always pall."
They are the last lines Fleming ever wrote about James Bond. They are clearly in Fleming's handwriting and put a nail in the coffin of the idea that Kingsley Amis wrote or rewrote the book. We now have definitive proof that the Fleming had finished a complete draft, which he was hand-correcting before his death.

Beyond all that, there is something very poignant in knowing that Fleming added those lines--his goodbye to Bond--by hand, after his last novel had been drafted. He knew he needed a better envoi to the Bond saga, and so he provided one.

[hoagy]

It would be interesting to know whether the bits Fleming wrote which have been made available to the current post-Fleming authorized author were written before or after the lines you quoted from TMWTGG.  Either way, what Fleming hand-wrote for the last completed book were complete lines.  It is my understanding that the material used for the newest book and which will be used for the next may be more of an outline, or draft, at most.

 

By the way, I'm sure you mean to write with style, but, really, whoever purchased the auctioned item may not be a mean-spirited person, regardless of their financial liquidity and regardless of their intent. Perhaps your choice of words has more to do with stylistically referring to the bidder's good fortune, but, you know, someone owned it and had the right to sell it, and the successful bidder bought it.  They don't owe anyone else anything.  Were it already in a curated collection, and the sale of underlying ownership done subject to continuing the museum or library maintenance of the item, that would be different. 

[Major Tallon]

Bless you, Revelator, for finding this.  To answer hoagy's question, since Fleming wrote the proposed notes for a Bond TV series well prior to writing the manuscript of TMWTGG (early in 1964), the handwritten corrections to the latter draft novel came after anything Fleming wrote in connection with the proposed TV series.   

 

I've spent numerous hours at Indiana University's Lilly Library, copying out Fleming's handwritten revisions to the James Bond novels, but TMWTGG is one of three manuscripts that Lilly doesn't have (Thunderball and Octopussy being the other two).  There would have likely been handwritten corrections from Fleming throughout the manuscript for TMWTGG, but seeing the final lines is a real find.  Thanks for spotting these and making them available to us. 

[Revelator]

You're very welcome Major! The other image on the page indeed shows that Fleming's handwritten corrections occur elsewhere in the typescript. I hope someday you'll gift us with an article or other presentation of your research.

 

Hoagy, my comment was meant in the jocular vein of phrases like "lucky bastard." And while the buyer and seller certainly don't owe anyone anything, it would be a shame if this typescript was to disappear into a private collection. As a Fleming fan, I feel something of an obligation to share the rare articles I find with other Fleming fans and on boards like this one. It's clear to me that this typescript will be more useful in an institution like the Lilly Library, which has given immense help to Fleming scholarship and to researchers like Major Tallon, than in the bookcase of a private collector. 

[Dustin]

Thanks for this find, Revelator. Though, having had a most unpleasant conversation with a supporter of the Amis-theory a few years ago, I'm somewhat pessimistic whether this evidence will really serve to end this 'postfactual' speculation. After all, even before this find logical reasons and facts - Amis himself criticised TMWTGG and debunked the rumour - haven't been enough to put the nonsense to rest...

Two different TV projects are known. The first, Commander Jamaica, was to mainly concern itself with rocket sabotage from the Caribbean. The agent (I'm not sure it was ever definitely decided whether it's Bond or a Bond-like character) was to operate from a ship; his boss, an admiral, was to give orders by the ship's tannoy system. It's unclear how many episodes this series was to have. Also it's not clear whether this was already a script or 'just' a treatment. When the project fell through Fleming reworked the material into DR. NO, so it's possible it was only intended to be four or six episodes.

The second TV series was to involve different adventures of Bond without a common theme. Here we know of the For Your Eyes Only short story compilation. Given the fact TV shows of that time often had seasons of 30 or more episodes, it's highly likely Fleming wasn't intending to write them all alone.

Currently it seems nobody has a clear idea how much material beyond FYEO Fleming already produced for that series, or what quality this material is. Horowitz talks about five pieces recently found in some drawer. Would be interesting to know whether anybody actually has an overview about how many 'drawers' there exist.

[ggl]

Bless you, Revelator, for finding this.  To answer hoagy's question, since Fleming wrote the proposed notes for a Bond TV series well prior to writing the manuscript of TMWTGG (early in 1964), the handwritten corrections to the latter draft novel came after anything Fleming wrote in connection with the proposed TV series.   

 

I've spent numerous hours at Indiana University's Lilly Library, copying out Fleming's handwritten revisions to the James Bond novels, but TMWTGG is one of three manuscripts that Lilly doesn't have (Thunderball and Octopussy being the other two).  There would have likely been handwritten corrections from Fleming throughout the manuscript for TMWTGG, but seeing the final lines is a real find.  Thanks for spotting these and making them available to us. 

Lucky you! Can you tell us more about your visits? Are the manuscripts available for everyone who asks for them? 

 

(By the way, thanks, Revelator for this great find)

[MajorB]

Fantastic and fascinating! Thanks so much for this!

[Simon]

All very fascinating chaps.

 

Thanks all.

[Moneyofpropre]

Interesting
 

I've spent numerous hours at Indiana University's Lilly Library, copying out Fleming's handwritten revisions to the James Bond novels, but TMWTGG is one of three manuscripts that Lilly doesn't have (Thunderball and Octopussy being the other two).

Off-topic, but by the way, how State of Excitement (Koweit) book is ?

Edited by Moneyofpropre, 16 December 2016 - 07:39 AM.

[Major Tallon]

They have a copy of State of Kuwait, but I focused on Bond.

 

I'll note that I previously answered ggl's question, but my answer seems to have disappeared.  I pointed out that the Lilly Library is accessible to the public, so long as you don't have an ink pen in your possession.  Also, you can't photocopy anything in the Fleming collection without permission from the estate, and good luck with getting that.  That's why I had to hand-copy the Fleming materials.  There are many more editorial changes to the early books (hundreds of them) than to the latter ones, I suspect because Fleming had a typist re-type his original manuscripts of the latter three or four prior to sending them to the publisher.  In the case of FRWL, one of what I call "the early books," he re-wrote the last several chapters and gave the book a "happy ending," and those chapters have never seen the light of day (except by me and a couple of other obsessive fans). 

 

I'd love to see the manuscript of TMWTGG, but, as I've noted, Lilly doesn't have that one.

[Moneyofpropre]

Oh. So if you had a pen (but no a ink pen), you can recopy the manuscripts. That's pretty cool.

Edited by Moneyofpropre, 17 December 2016 - 05:39 AM.

[ggl]

They have a copy of State of Kuwait, but I focused on Bond.

 

I'll note that I previously answered ggl's question, but my answer seems to have disappeared.  I pointed out that the Lilly Library is accessible to the public, so long as you don't have an ink pen in your possession.  Also, you can't photocopy anything in the Fleming collection without permission from the estate, and good luck with getting that.  That's why I had to hand-copy the Fleming materials.  There are many more editorial changes to the early books (hundreds of them) than to the latter ones, I suspect because Fleming had a typist re-type his original manuscripts of the latter three or four prior to sending them to the publisher.  In the case of FRWL, one of what I call "the early books," he re-wrote the last several chapters and gave the book a "happy ending," and those chapters have never seen the light of day (except by me and a couple of other obsessive fans). 

 

I'd love to see the manuscript of TMWTGG, but, as I've noted, Lilly doesn't have that one.

Thanks, Major Tallon. I thought that FRWL had been rewritten only in some paragraphs. Are you saying that there are all new chapters? How was the original "happy ending"? How did Klebb die?

[glidrose]

From the catalog notes: "with a single typescript page of suggested corrections by Kingsley Amis that were later adopted in proof."

A single typescript page. A single page. That's it. A single bloody typescript page.

Another conspiracy theory bites the dust...

Thanks for this find, Revelator. Though, having had a most unpleasant conversation with a supporter of the Amis-theory a few years ago, I'm somewhat pessimistic whether this evidence will really serve to end this 'postfactual' speculation. After all, even before this find logical reasons and facts - Amis himself criticised TMWTGG and debunked the rumour - haven't been enough to put the nonsense to rest...

That chap had some choice words about you on the Mi6 forum. Sore loser and all, I guess.

[Dustin]

Can't win them all.

[Trevelyan 006]

Man, you don't seen things like this everyday! The lot was a total package, really. Fleming's hand-written revisions of his final Bond novel, including his final sentence on a character that will continue to define his own legacy.

 

Lucky chap indeed, that auction winner.

 

Lucky for us, judging on the money spent alone, these pieces belong to a serious collector at least.

[glidrose]

Who put it up for sale? I would have thought that IFP owned the typescript.

[Dustin]

That's what I was wondering, too.