I am pleased to announce that the Rare Book Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia will soon make available to researchers the collection of real James Bond, Mary Bond, and Ian Fleming books and memorabilia that I recently donated.
This from the library’s latest newsletter:
Who’s your favorite
James Bond?
Sean Connery or Roger Moore? Daniel Craig or Pierce Brosnan? The Rare Book Department’s favorite Bond is the real James Bond.
The real James Bond (1900-1989) was a Philadelphia ornithologist and longtime curator of the bird collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences. His particular area of expertise was birds of the Caribbean Islands, and he authored a field guide called Birds of the West Indies.
When lan Fleming, author of the Bond series and amateur ornithologist, was looking for a name for his main character, his cherished copy of Birds of the West Indies provided just the inspiration he needed.
Jim Wright, author of The Real James Bond: A True Story of Identity Theft, Avian Intrigue & lan Fleming (Schiffer Publishing, 2020), recently donated his rich archive of Bond-related material and research to the Rare Book Department, where it joins the archive of Bond’s wife, Mary Fanning Whickham Bond. Together, the two collections tell the story of the real James Bond, and how a little identity theft sparked a strange friendship. Our thanks to Jim for his generosity—we look forward to making this trove of materials available to researchers soon!
When the collection — which includes books by Ian Fleming and Mary Bond and lots of Bond-related publications and ephemera — is available, I hope to post a list of the contents of the collection. I am so glad the collection found such a wonderful collection. I spent many hours in the Rre Book Department going through their already-amazing Bond archives.
Mary Bond was on the board of the Free Library, James Bond (the ornithologist) worked across Logan Circle in the Academy of Natural Sciences.
