james bond live and let die hc ian fleming

As the author’s literary estate and now publishers, what responsibility did we have, if any, to review the original texts? We consulted with a number of external parties but ultimately decided that, rather than making changes in line with their advice, it was instead most appropriate to look for guidance from the author himself. Paperback editions with brand new cover designs will be available from April 13 th, and eBook versions are already available. Our first decision was to mark the 70 th anniversary of the original publication of Casino Royale, the first Bond novel, by publishing new editions of all the Bonds. Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, the Fleming family company that owns the literary copyright in his books, announced plans to publish them under its own imprint for the first time. In 2017, when Vintage published a hardback edition of Live and Let Die, a version of the US text was used with an introduction explaining the changes. We have retained these changes. Fleming approved all the changes and the version of Live and Let Die published in America was therefore different from the British edition, and from his letters, it seems Fleming preferred the amended US version. Others deleted or changed passages or words Hart felt were racially troubling, even then. Some of these corrected minor factual errors. Yet, ahead of publication in the US in 1955, Al Hart, editor at Fleming’s US publisher, Macmillan, suggested a number of changes to Live and Let Die. Published a year later in Britain, Fleming’s text drew little comment from his editors. In short, the world was a very different place than it is now. In 1953 when Ian Fleming began to write his second James Bond novel, Live and Let Die, a youthful Queen Elizabeth had just ascended the throne, Winston Churchill was Prime Minister and Jamaica, where much of the plot is set, was still nine years away from gaining its independence from the British Empire. Following a media flurry on the matter, Ian Fleming Publications issued the following statement tonight:

James bond live and let die hc ian fleming