You Only Live Twice

London: Jonathan Cape, 1964. First edition. Near Fine/Near Fine. A Near Fine copy in like dust jacket, jacket price clipped and with only the slightest wear at the extremities. First impression, first state, Binding 'A' (with "First published 1964" on the copyright page and Japanese gilt characters on the front board). Octavo (7 3/8 x 5 inches; 188 x 127 mm.). 255, [1] pp. Publisher's black cloth effect paper over boards, front cover with gilt kanji, spine lettered in silver, bamboo patterned endpapers. Dust jacket designed by Richard Chopping.

"When Ernst Stavro Blofeld blasted into eternity the girl whom James Bond had married only hours (truncated) before, the heart, the zest for life, went out of Bond. Incredibly, from being a top agent of the Secret Service, he had gone to pieces, was even on the verge of becoming a security risk. M is persuaded to give him one last chance - an impossible mission far removed from his usual duties - and Bond leaves for Japan." The twelfth novel in the James Bond series and the last Bond novel published while Fleming was still alive, featuring Kissy Suzuki, tries to heal Bond's wounded heart and bears him the only child we are aware of after Bond kills Ernst Blofeld, is affected by amnesia, and lives with her as a fisherman in Japan.

Gilbert, A12a, 1.1. Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. (Inventory #: 4684)