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Article: The birth of BOND 'Casino Royale' marks 50th year
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- March 16, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2003 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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CASINO ROYALE
By Ian Fleming
Penguin. $13 paper.
How time flies when we're having fun: James Bond will be 50 next
month. He first saw the light of day April 13, 1953, when Casino
Royale, the first "Bond book," was published in England.
Bond's prenatal history is intriguing. He was conceived,
apparently, around the middle of January, 1952, at Goldeneye, the
Jamaican retreat of his creator, Ian Fleming. The gestation was
amazingly short--Fleming completed the manuscript in eight weeks, or
maybe as few as four--though the delivery was long, more than a year
later and thousands of miles away. Fittingly heroic obstetrics for
one of the most durable heroes of our time.
Like all proud papas, ...