Ian Fleming - Moonraker [First edition 2nd impression] - 1955

Are you interested in this item? This item is up for auction at Catawiki. Please click on "respond to advert" (orange button) to get redirected to the Catawiki website. Catawiki’s goal is to make special objects universally available. Our weekly auctions feature thousands of unusual, rare, and exceptional objects you won’t find in just any store. Up for auction is this extremely rare 1st edition, 2nd impression of Ian Fleming's third James Bond book, Moonraker.

Printed in November 1955, the same year as the first impression, only 990 second impressions were printed, making this an incredibly scarce title.

As can be seen from the photographs, this book presents in very good condition, with clean, internal pages throughout, and no foxing/spotting/blemishes. The page block is also creamy white, rather than sunned.

The boards are in very good, clean, and square condition, with no stubbed corners, and they still feature bright silver lettering. Save for light bumping to the top and bottom of the spine and just the hint of some surface fraying of the cloth along the crease of the spine on the back of the book, it’s in excellent condition.

To me, the fact it carries a St John and Red Cross Hospital Library sticker gives it some real history. This book will have aided the recovery of some real injured dare devils - very appropriate I think!

Apart from this, there are no other stamps in the book.

The back end-papers apoear to have cracked along the line of where the book folds/hinges and have been re-glued, but that’s all I can see.

This is a VERY rare opportunity to secure this very early impression of this iconic title.

One of just 990 books printed, this second impression rarely comes up for sale - and is literally the next best thing to a 1st impression. 67520253 Read more