For fans of the real James Bond and Birds of the West Indies, a mystery still surrounds the very first edition, published in 1936 by the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and printed by the Waverly Press in Baltimore.
The mystery is: Why was the book published with two different bindings, one gray and the other dull green, with slightly different type on the spine?
The title page for both — indeed, the entire book — seems identical in both instances.
The photos are of my two first editions, one in each color.
No one seems to know which was published first, or why a change was made.
The one pictured above has the original dust jacket — which took me four years to find for sale.
The dust jacket still has $4.50 in pencil — the original price.
Tomorrow: A great webpage about all the editions of BOTWI.36
Friday: All about the bird on the cover of the 1936 and 1947 editions.
Yesterday: Read the 1936 BOTWI online for free, here.
Last Sunday: Ian Fleming’s copy of BOTWI.
