The Moonraker first edition came with a joke in the inscription: ‘To Field Marshall Chandler from Private Ian Fleming 1955’. Raymond Chandler then annotated the margins, which makes the copy behind this page a record of one novelist reading another.
In the books
Moonraker is Fleming’s third Bond novel, published by Jonathan Cape in April 1955 with a jacket design conceived by Fleming and executed by Kenneth Lewis. The inscribed copy is catalogued as carrying Chandler’s own notes in the margins. Christie’s has described the novel as the most self-consciously autobiographical of the Bond books so far.
Owning it now
The inscribed copy is a unique object and is not for sale here. A plain first edition is, though: Meier and Sons, a rare-book dealer, listed one in near fine condition with a facsimile dust jacket for US$2,795 at the time of writing, and that is where our link goes. Collectors check two points: whether the red flames on the spine have faded, and whether page 10 reads ‘shoot’ or the rarer, valuable ‘shoo’. More under Books & Media, and the films.
Specifications
| Title | Moonraker |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape, London, April 1955 |
| Jacket | Design by Fleming, executed by Kenneth Lewis |
| The copy | First edition, inscribed to Raymond Chandler with his marginal notes; unique |
| Linked copy | First edition, first printing, near fine, facsimile jacket, uninscribed |
| Dealer price | US$2,795 (at the time of writing, October 2026) |
Full details are on Collecting Fleming’s guide to the first edition.
