Ian Fleming

Original signed carbon copy of Typed Letter Signed by Ian Fleming (his original, handwritten initials in blue ink), sent to Michael Parker, a writer seeking employment with the Sunday Times of London, part of the Kemsley Newspaper Group. Ian Fleming’s signature is highly desirable in all forms, even initials.

Fleming, who a year later would publish his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, was Foreign Manager of the news service following World War II, managing a network of 80 correspondents in far-flung posts. Using this legitimate news organization as a cover, Fleming ran a covert operation known as Mercury, using foreign correspondents to gather information in sensitive foreign zones for the British intelligence agency MI6.

This copy of the letter to Parker was sent to journalist (and spy) Antony Terry under a separate cover letter (that image shown for reference). Terry, a British journalist and former European Editor of the Sunday Times who worked for Fleming, was also a former army intelligence officer; his obituary identified him as “one of the paper’s most valuable assets, a one-man listening post, a fastidious checker of facts, a burrower into dark corners and a traveller who never complained of fatigue.” An excellent letter of association by one of the most efficient spymasters working for MI6 during a pivotal time in world history, who went on to create the most successful spy novelists of all time.

On 8″ x 10″ paper with two hole punches at left, three horizontal folds, minor creases, remnants of staples to top-left corner. Excellent condition.