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Fleming´s library

ggl007ggl007 www.archivo007.com Spain, España
edited September 2013 in Literary 007 Posts: 2,542
I´m rereading Fleming and finding a lot of great surprises. First of all I have to say that my editions are in Spanish and not noted, so I have some trouble sometimes...

My question is about Fleming´s quotes of great writers. How many can we find and where?

I´ve just finished DAF and I was quite surprised with this quote, when Bond discovers that Wind and Kidd are on board the Queen Elizabeth:

Bond sat for a moment frozen to his chair. Suddenly, there flashed unwanted into his mind that most sinister line in all poetry: 'They reckon ill who leave me out. When me they fly, I am the wings.'

Of course, I googled the line and found the Emerson poem but, first, I don´t find it such "sinister" and, second, I wonder if this is a common English scholar poem like Hemans´Casabianca that Bond quoted in MR.

So, is Brahma so famous in Great Britain? or was it during the 50´s? and, why is it the "most sinister line in all poetry"?

Furthermore, do we know what were Ian Fleming´s favourite writers?

Comments

  • RevelatorRevelator
    edited September 2013 Posts: 2,922
    I recall Fleming expressing admiration for Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. He also made his wife read Mann's "Death in Venice."
    One of Fleming's desert island books was a German translation of Tolstoy's War and Peace. He also adored F. Scott Fitzgerald's essay collection The Crack-Up.
    He was so taken by Hugh Edwards' All Night at Mr. Stanyhurst's that he helped get the novel reprinted and supplied an introduction (both can be read online at http://archive.org/details/allnightatmrstan010625mbp).
    That's about all I can recall about Fleming's favorite books. As for "Brahma," I was just as surprised as you, and my questions are the same as yours. Out of all the poems for Bond to quote, it seems the most left-field--one of the many unexpected bits that enliven the Bond novels.
  • ggl007ggl007 www.archivo007.com Spain, España
    Posts: 2,542
    Thanks, Revelator, for your answer. I have no idea of that Hugh Edwards´story, really interesting!

    Anyway, we´re still looking for answers here...
  • 007InVT007InVT Classified
    Posts: 893
    He also enjoyed Carson McCuller's 'Reflections in a Golden Eye'

  • ggl007ggl007 www.archivo007.com Spain, España
    Posts: 2,542
    Emerson´s Brahma?? Anybody?? Perhaps it´s not so well known as I imagine...
  • ggl007ggl007 www.archivo007.com Spain, España
    Posts: 2,542
    Going on with my rereading. In FRWL, apart from the obvious (War and Peace or Eric Ambler), I found two references quite interesting:

    A reference to An Appointment in Samarra, when Kerim and Bond go looking for Krilencu;

    and one about Lermontov, when M tells Bond that Tania felt in love with him because he reminded her about a Lermontov´s hero (A Hero of our time? Probably...)
  • ggl007ggl007 www.archivo007.com Spain, España
    Posts: 2,542
    In the last chapter of Dr. No we can read:

    the 'heat waves, the cold spells—'The only country where you can take a walk
    every day of the year'—Chesterfield's Letters?

    Well, I googled "Chesterfield letters" and discovered the man and his work. The question remaining is: does the quote belong to a Chesterfield Letter? To which one?
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,348
    This is certainly a very interesting thread; I had an idea a number of years back to write an in-depth article on Ian Fleming's library and his literary inspirations, buy it is still languishing in my notebook, waiting to be brought to life on the page.
  • ggl007ggl007 www.archivo007.com Spain, España
    Posts: 2,542
    Thanks, Dragonpol, for your answer.

    Here comes another good one. In Goldfinger, Bond quotes: : 'Some love is fire, some love is rust. But the finest, cleanest love is lust.' That is from The Wild Party by Joseph Moncure March, apparently an erotic, obscene poem-book from the 20´s...
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,348
    ggl007 wrote:
    Thanks, Dragonpol, for your answer.

    Here comes another good one. In Goldfinger, Bond quotes: : 'Some love is fire, some love is rust. But the finest, cleanest love is lust.' That is from The Wild Party by Joseph Moncure March, apparently an erotic, obscene poem-book from the 20´s...

    Interesting as Ian Fleming himself was a poet in his younger days and in fact had a poetry book published in the 1920s, though he later had all copies destroyed. There used to be excerpts from Fleming's poetry book on a now defunct website run by Nick Kincaid called 007 Forever. I assume that these first appeared in some print source.
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