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Ian Fleming Centenary

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In Ian Fleming’s home ‘Goldeneye’ at Oracabessa in Jamaica, one of his ‘bibles’ was a classic reference book Birds of the West Indies by American ornithologist James Bond.

 

HOW 007 GOT HIS NAME

Ian Fleming explained: “I was determined that my secret agent should be as anonymous a personality as possible. It struck me that his name, brief, unromantic, and yet very masculine, was just what I needed.”

Ian Fleming and the ‘real’ James Bond met only once on February 5, 1964, at the author's home in Jamaica. On the same day Fleming was interviewed for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation [featured as an extra on the From Russia With Love Ultimate Edition DVD and Blu-ray]. In 1966 Collins published a slim volume entitled How 007 Got His Name by Mary Wickham Bond. This book [illustrated below] is a fascinating account of the day Mary Bond's husband met the thief of his identity. Also included in the book is the complete text of On Her Majesty's Ornithological Service by Avian Flemish, a short story parody by American ornithologist Kenneth C. Parkes (1922-2007) [curator of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh]. The short parody was first published in 1964 in The Auklet - a humorous journal edited by Parkes.

 
James Bond meets Ian Fleming at Goldeneye James Bond meets Ian Fleming at Goldeneye Mr & Mrs James Bond with Ian Fleming Mr & Mrs James Bond with Ian Fleming
Bird of the West Indies by James Bond
From the Arizona Republic, Friday, February 17th, 1989.
OBITUARY
JAMES BOND:
LENT HIS NAME TO 007

PHILADELPHIA
James Bond, an ornithologist whose name was adopted for the fictional British agent in Ian Fleming’s novels, has died at age 89.

Mr Bond, who died Tuesday, was a curator of ornithology at the Academy of Natural Sciences and was the leading authority on birds of the West Indies for more than 50 years. He was best known scientifically for proving that some Caribbean birds originated in North America, not South America.

In recognition of his discovery, the geographic line dividing Caribbean birds of North American ancestry from those of South American origins has been called ‘Bond’s Line.’

His contribution to popular culture came after World War II when Fleming saw his book Birds of the West Indies. Fleming, a bird watcher, was writing a thriller at the time and adopted the name for the dashing character portrayed in movies by Sean Connery, Roger Moore and others.

“It struck me that this brief unromantic, Anglo-Saxon name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born,” Fleming wrote. Years later he wrote to Mr Bond’s wife, Mary: “In return I can only offer you or James Bond unlimited use of the name Ian Fleming for any purposes you think fit.”

Mr Bond, a native of Philadelphia, earned a bachelor’s degree at Cambridge University and made his first scientific expedition in 1925 when he travelled up the Amazon River to collect bird skins and live birds.

Young Bond James Bond Ornitholgist The real James Bond Mary Wickham Bond reads How 007 Got His Name

ABOVE: (left) YOUNG BOND - An oil portrait of James Bond aged 12 by his uncle Carroll Tyson Jr. (centre) James Bond: Ornithologist. (right) Mary Wickham Bond with a copy of her book How 007 Got His Name.


Ian Fleming Centenary

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