Editing Ian Fleming (section)

=== 1950s ===
{{Quote box|quote =The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. Then the soul erosion produced by high gambling—a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension—becomes unbearable and the senses awake and revolt from it.|source =Opening lines of ''[[Casino Royale (novel)|Casino Royale]]''|width = 240px|salign = right}}

Fleming had first mentioned to friends during the war that he wanted to write a spy novel,<ref name="Lycett (DNB)" /> an ambition he achieved within two months with [[Casino Royale (novel)|''Casino Royale'']].<ref>{{cite web |title=Ian Fleming |url=http://www.ianfleming.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=96 |work=About Ian Fleming |publisher=[[Ian Fleming Publications]] |access-date=7 September 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110815225420/http://www.ianfleming.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=96 |archive-date=15 August 2011}}</ref> He started writing the book at Goldeneye on 15 January 1952, and was finished writing no later than 16 February 1952, averaging more than 2,000 words per day. He claimed afterwards that he wrote the novel to distract himself from his forthcoming wedding to the pregnant Charteris,{{sfn|Bennett|Woollacott|2003|p=1}} and called the work his "dreadful oafish opus".{{sfn|Macintyre|2008|p=19}} His manuscript was typed in London by Joan Howe (mother of travel writer [[Rory MacLean]]), Fleming's red-haired secretary at ''The Times'' on whom the character [[Miss Moneypenny]] was partially based.{{sfn|MacLean|2012|p=57}} Clare Blanchard, a former girlfriend, advised him not to publish the book, or at least to do so under a pseudonym.{{sfn|Chancellor|2005|p=5}}

During ''Casino Royale's'' final draft stages, Fleming allowed his friend [[William Plomer]] to see a copy, and remarked "so far as I can see the element of suspense is completely absent".{{sfn|Lycett|1996|p=226}} Despite this, Plomer thought the book had sufficient promise and sent a copy to the publishing house [[Jonathan Cape]]. At first, they were unenthusiastic about the novel, but Fleming's brother Peter, whose books they managed, persuaded the company to publish it.{{sfn|Lycett|1996|p=226}} On 13 April 1953 ''Casino Royale'' was released in the UK in hardcover, priced at [[£sd|10s 6d]],{{sfn|Lycett|1996|p=244}} with a cover designed by Fleming.<ref name="Guardian covers (2008)" /> It was a success and three print runs were needed to cope with the demand.{{sfn|Lycett|1996|p=244}}<ref name="Guardian covers (2008)" />{{sfn|Lindner|2009|p=14}}

The novel centres on the exploits of [[James Bond (literary character)|James Bond]], an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as [[MI6]]. Bond is also known by his code number, 007, and was a [[Commander (Royal Navy)|commander]] in the [[Royal Naval Reserve]]. Fleming took the name for his character from that of the American ornithologist [[James Bond (ornithologist)|James Bond]], an expert on [[Caribbean]] birds and author of the definitive field guide ''[[Birds of the West Indies]]''. Fleming, himself a keen [[Birdwatching|birdwatcher]],<ref name="Bond obit" /> had a copy of Bond's guide, and later told the ornithologist's wife, "that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born".{{sfn|Griswold|2006|p=46}} In a 1962 interview in ''[[The New Yorker]]'', he further explained: "When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted him to be a blunt instrument&nbsp;... when I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, [James Bond] is the dullest name I ever heard."<ref name="Hellman (1962)" />

[[File:Fleming007impression.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Illustration commissioned by Fleming, showing his concept of the [[James Bond (literary character)|James Bond]] character]]
Fleming based his creation on individuals he met during his time in the Naval Intelligence Division, and admitted that Bond "was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war".<ref name=" Macintyre (2008)" /> Among those types were his brother Peter, whom he worshipped,<ref name=" Macintyre (2008)" /> and who had been involved in behind-the-lines operations in Norway and Greece during the war.<ref name="PF Obit (1971)" /> Fleming envisaged that Bond would resemble the composer, singer and actor [[Hoagy Carmichael]]; others, such as author and historian [[Ben Macintyre]], identify aspects of Fleming's own looks in his description of Bond.{{sfn|Macintyre|2008|p=51}}{{sfn|Amis|1966|p=35}} General references in the novels describe Bond as having "dark, rather cruel good looks".{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=62}}

Fleming also modelled aspects of Bond on [[Conrad O'Brien-ffrench]], a spy whom Fleming had met while skiing in Kitzbühel in the 1930s, [[Patrick Dalzel-Job]], who served with distinction in 30AU during the war, and [[Wilfred Dunderdale|Bill "Biffy" Dunderdale]], station head of MI6 in Paris, who wore cufflinks and handmade suits and was chauffeured around Paris in a [[Rolls-Royce Limited|Rolls-Royce]].<ref name=" Macintyre (2008)" />{{sfn|Macintyre|2008|pp=68–69}} [[Sir Fitzroy Maclean, 1st Baronet|Sir Fitzroy Maclean]] was another possible model for Bond, based on his wartime work behind enemy lines in the [[Balkans]], as was the MI6 [[double agent]] [[Duško Popov]].{{sfn|Chancellor|2005|p=54}} Fleming also endowed Bond with many of his own traits, including the same golf handicap, his taste for scrambled eggs, his love of gambling, and use of the same brand of toiletries.{{sfn|Macintyre|2008|p=50}}<ref name="Cook (2004)" />

After the publication of ''Casino Royale'', Fleming used his annual holiday at his house in Jamaica to write another Bond story.<ref name="Lycett (DNB)" /> Twelve Bond novels and two short-story collections were published between 1953 and 1966, the last two (''[[The Man with the Golden Gun (novel)|The Man with the Golden Gun]]'' and ''[[Octopussy and The Living Daylights]]'') posthumously.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=75}} Much of the background to the stories came from Fleming's previous work in the Naval Intelligence Division or from events he knew of from the [[Cold War]].{{sfn|Macintyre|2008|p=90}} The plot of [[From Russia, with Love (novel)|''From Russia, with Love'']] uses a fictional Soviet Spektor decoding machine as a lure to trap Bond; the Spektor had its roots in the wartime German Enigma machine.{{sfn|Chancellor|2005|p=97}} The novel's plot device of spies on the [[Orient Express]] was based on the story of Eugene Karp, a US naval attaché and intelligence agent based in Budapest who took the Orient Express from Budapest to Paris in February 1950, carrying papers about blown US spy networks in the [[Eastern Bloc]]. Soviet assassins already on the train drugged the conductor, and Karp's body was found shortly afterwards in a railway tunnel south of [[Salzburg]].{{sfn|Chancellor|2005|p=96}}

[[File:Hoagy Carmichael - 1947.jpg|thumb|right|[[Hoagy Carmichael]], whose looks Fleming described for Bond]]
Many of the names used in the Bond works came from people Fleming knew: [[Francisco Scaramanga|Scaramanga]], the principal villain in ''The Man with the Golden Gun'', was named after a fellow Eton schoolboy with whom Fleming fought;{{sfn|Macintyre|2008|p=90}} [[Auric Goldfinger|Goldfinger]], from the eponymous novel, was named after British architect [[Ernő Goldfinger]], whose work Fleming abhorred;{{sfn|Macintyre|2008|p=90}} Sir [[Hugo Drax]], the antagonist of ''Moonraker'', was named after Fleming's acquaintance [[Reginald Drax|Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax]];{{sfn|Macintyre|2008|p=88}} Drax's assistant, Krebs, bears the same name as Hitler's [[Hans Krebs (Wehrmacht general)|last Chief of Staff]];{{sfn|Black|2005|p=20}} and one of the homosexual villains from [[Diamonds Are Forever (novel)|''Diamonds Are Forever'']], "Boofy" Kidd, was named after one of Fleming's close friends—and a relative of his wife—[[Arthur Gore, 8th Earl of Arran]], known as Boofy to his friends.{{sfn|Macintyre|2008|p=90}}

Fleming's first work of non-fiction, ''[[The Diamond Smugglers]]'', was published in 1957 and was partly based on background research for his fourth Bond novel, ''Diamonds Are Forever''.{{sfn|Benson|1988|pp=16–17}} Much of the material had appeared in ''The Sunday Times'' and was based on Fleming's interviews with John Collard, a member of the International Diamond Security Organisation who had previously worked in [[MI5]].{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=16}} The book received mixed reviews in the UK and US.{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=17}}

For the first five books (''Casino Royale'', [[Live and Let Die (novel)|''Live and Let Die'']], ''Moonraker'', ''Diamonds Are Forever'' and ''From Russia, with Love'') Fleming received broadly positive reviews.{{sfn|Macintyre|2008|pp=196–197}} That began to change in March 1958 when [[Bernard Bergonzi]], in the journal ''Twentieth Century'', attacked Fleming's work as containing "a strongly marked streak of voyeurism and sado-masochism"<ref name="Bergonzi (1958)" /> and wrote that the books showed "the total lack of any ethical frame of reference".<ref name="Bergonzi (1958)" /> The article compared Fleming unfavourably with [[John Buchan]] and Raymond Chandler on both moral and literary criteria.{{sfn|Lindner|2009|p=19}} A month later, ''[[Dr. No (novel)|Dr. No]]'' was published, and Fleming received harsh criticism from reviewers who, in the words of Ben Macintyre, "rounded on Fleming, almost as a pack".{{sfn|Macintyre|2008|p=197}} The most strongly worded of the critiques came from [[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]] of the ''[[New Statesman]]'', who, in his review "Sex, Snobbery and Sadism", called the novel "without doubt, the nastiest book I have ever read".<ref name="Johnson (1958)" /> Johnson went on to say that "by the time I was a third of the way through, I had to suppress a strong impulse to throw the thing away".<ref name="Johnson (1958)" /> Johnson recognised that in Bond there "was a social phenomenon of some importance",<ref name="Johnson (1958)" /> but this was seen as a negative element, as the phenomenon concerned "three basic ingredients in ''Dr No'', all unhealthy, all thoroughly English: the sadism of a schoolboy bully, the mechanical, two-dimensional sex-longings of a frustrated adolescent, and the crude, snob-cravings of a suburban adult."<ref name="Johnson (1958)" /> Johnson saw no positives in ''Dr. No'', and said, "Mr Fleming has no literary skill, the construction of the book is chaotic, and entire incidents and situations are inserted, and then forgotten, in a haphazard manner."<ref name="Johnson (1958)" />

Lycett notes that Fleming "went into a personal and creative decline" after marital problems and the attacks on his work.<ref name="Lycett (DNB)" /> [[Goldfinger (novel)|''Goldfinger'']] had been written before the publication of ''Dr. No''; the next book Fleming produced after the criticism was [[For Your Eyes Only (short story collection)|''For Your Eyes Only'']], a collection of short stories derived from outlines written for a television series that did not come to fruition.{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=18}} Lycett noted that, as Fleming was writing the television scripts and the short stories, "Ian's mood of weariness and self-doubt was beginning to affect his writing", which can be seen in Bond's thoughts.{{sfn|Lycett|1996|p=369}}