007 at 20007: Spy Fiction at Georgetown

Matthew Smith. Memoirs of Secret Service. London: A. Baldwin, 1699.  General Rare Books Collection 86VA3
Gift of Walter L. Pforzheimer in honor of Col. Russell J. Bowen
The perhaps “immodest” memoirs, as one critic proclaimed, of British spy Matthew Smith (1665-1723?) were widely circulated. Although not a work of fiction, this book captured the imagination of a growing reading public.

James Fenimore Cooper. The Spy. London: G. and W. B. Whittaker, 1822.  First English edition.  3 vols.  Levy Collection PS 1417 .S7 1822
James Fenimore Cooper’s second book was based on a true story told to him by John Jay.

Joseph Conrad. The Secret Agent. London: T. Werner Laurie, 1923.
General Rare Books Collection 86A413
Although subtitled, “A Simple Tale,” Conrad’s novel, originally published in 1907, presents a complicated world of melodrama, espionage, and intrigue.

Erskine Childers. The Riddle of the Sands. London: Smith, Elder, 1903.
First edition, second impression.  General Rare Books Collection 94A233
Many scholars point to this oft reprinted classic as the first spy novel.  Also displayed are The Riddle of the Sands (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1915) and The Riddle of the Sands (New York: David McKay, 1977); the image of Childers is from The Riddle of the Sands (London: Collins, 1955).

William Le Queux. The Great War in England. London: F. V. White, 1897.  Lauinger Stacks UA 647 .L4 1897
This popular spy novel demonstrates a common feature in Le Queux’s writing: a patriotic hero working to foil foreign spies. The Great War in England is displayed with Spies of the Kaiser (Toronto: Macmillan, 1909) from the Bowen Spy Fiction Collection.

William Le Queux. The Great War in England. London: F. V. White, 1897.  Lauinger Stacks UA 647 .L4 1897
This popular spy novel demonstrates a common feature in Le Queux’s writing: a patriotic hero working to foil foreign spies. The Great War in England is displayed with Spies of the Kaiser (Toronto: Macmillan, 1909) from the Bowen Spy Fiction Collection.

E. Phillips Oppenheim. The Spymaster.  Boston: Little, Brown, 1938.
Bowen Spy Fiction Collection
Oppenheim (1866-1946), the prolific “Prince of Storytellers,” was a rival of Le Queux and extremely popular during his lifetime. Also displayed are The Great Secret (Boston: Little, Brown, 1908) and The Double Traitor (Cleveland: World Publishing Company, 1943), from the Bowen Spy Fiction Collection.

Sapper. Bull-Dog Drummond. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1920.
Bowen Spy Fiction Collection
Herman Cyril McNeile (1888-1937) took his pseudonym—Sapper—from the nickname of the Royal Engineers. His output is not considered literary; however, his novels do have a place in the formation of the spy fiction genre.

John Buchan. Adventures of Richard Hannay. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1939.  Bowen Spy Fiction Collection
The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) introduced the popular character, Richard Hannay, who was further immortalized in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1935 film.

W. Somerset Maugham. Ashenden; or The British Agent. New York:
Avon, 1951.  Bowen Spy Fiction Collection
Originally published in 1928, Ashenden is Maugham’s only contribution to the spy fiction genre. It is most notable for its straightforward, understated take on Intelligence, diverging from the extreme melodrama of its genre precursors.

Eric Ambler. Judgment on Deltchev. New York: Knopf, 1951.
Greene Collection, Greene 0973
Provenance: Catherine Walston and Graham Greene
Ambler intended his early leftist spy thrillers to make the genre “grow up” into the world of social realism. Judgment on Deltchev was a further break for the genre into post-war ideological realism. It is shown here with the mass-market paperback edition of The Light of Day (New York: Bantam, 1964) from the Bowen Spy Fiction Collection.

John Pearson. The Life of Ian Fleming. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966.
Bowen Military Intelligence Collection, MI-1197
Displayed with the lower cover of the first edition (London: Cape, 1966). 

Henry A. Zeiger. Ian Fleming, The Spy Who Came in with the Gold.
New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1965. 
Bowen Military Intelligence Collection, MI-15385

Ian Fleming to Alan Gabriel Barnsley, 21 April 1954.
Alan Gabriel Barnsley Papers; Box 1, Folder 1
Georgetown University Library Special Collections Research Center
Page 1 of the letter shown in facsimile
Fleming responds to an apparently charming letter from Barnsely.

Ian Fleming. “Raymond Chandler,” The London Magazine. Volume 6, Number 12 (1959): 43-54. Lauinger Periodical Stacks
Periodical cover and first page of article shown in facsimile
The correspondence between Fleming and Chandler that Fleming presents in his article occurred during the last four years of Chandler’s life.

Displayed with

Raymond Chandler. The Big Sleep. New York: Knopf, 1939. First edition, Advance reading copy. General Rare Books Collection 88VA1
The Big Sleep introduces Philip Marlowe, the detective fiction genre’s equivalent of James Bond.

John Pearson. The Life of Ian Fleming. Sevenoaks: Hodder and Stoughton, 1989. Bowen Military Intelligence Collection MI-15386

Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Santa Monica, CA: MGM
Home Entertainment, 2003. Gelardin New Media Center
Popular 1968 film version of Ian Fleming’s 1964-1965 children’s novel.

The Book Collector. Volume 1, Number 1 (1952).
Lauinger Periodicals Collection
Facsimile of title page

Displayed with

Percy H. Muir. Book-Collecting as a Hobby: In a Series of Letters to Everyman. New York: Knopf, 1947. First American edition.
Riedel Collection Z992 .M947 1947
Percy Muir and Ian Fleming connected over book collecting. Muir’s accessibly written book on collecting helped the general public (or the Everyman) relate to the mind of the collector and the love of books.

Ian Fleming. “The Property of a Lady.” Playboy, Volume 11, Number 1. Chicago: HMH Publishing, January 1964.

Displayed with

Ian Fleming. “The Property of a Lady” in The Ivory Hammer: The Year at Sotheby’s. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1962-1963.
Lauinger Stacks N8640 .A7 1962/1963
Ian Fleming, per special request of Sotheby’s, wrote a James Bond short story highlighting an auction at Sotheby’s to appear in The Ivory Hammer (a review of Sotheby’s sales throughout 1962-1963).

Pierre Simon Laplace. Traité de Mécanique Céleste, tome premier. Paris: Chez J.B.M. Duprat, 1798. Georgetown College Collection  π 121

John Henry Newman. Remarks on Certain Passages in the Thirty-Nine Articles. London: J.G.F. & J. Rivington, 1841. First edition.
Newman Collection BX5137 .N4 1841

Ferdinand de Lesseps. Percement de l’isthme de Suez. Paris: H. Plon, 1855.
First of a series of six volumes. Shandelle Collection 1855 .L4

Frederick Winslow Taylor. The Principles of Scientific Management. New York, London: Harper & Brothers, 1911. Shandelle Collection 1911 .T3

John Carter and Percy H. Muir. Printing and the Mind of Man.
New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1967. First edition.
General Library of Congress Rare Books Collection Z4 .C3

Graham Greene. Our Man in Havana. London: Heinemann, 1958.
Greene Collection, Greene 0858
Provenance: Catherine Walston and Graham Greene

Displayed with

Graham Greene. Our Man in Havana. New York: Viking, 1958.
Greene Collection, Greene 0968
Provenance: Catherine Walston and Graham Greene

Autographed Postcard from Kim Philby to Graham Greene, 8 January 1979. Graham Greene Papers, Part 2, Box 1, Folder 36
Georgetown University Library Special Collections Research Center
Postcard image of Bar Floridita in Havana, Cuba shown in facsimile
     “New Year Greetings from Your Fan in Havana—Muchos daiquiris en la Floridita!”

Autographed transcript of Graham Greene’s letter to the London Times, September 7, 1982 Graham Greene Papers, Part 2, Box 3, Folder 31
Georgetown University Library Special Collections Research Center
Greene writes his reaction to an interview John Le Carré gave to the Times. The article clipping is shown to the left in facsimile.

The notorious real life spy Kim Philby (1912-1988) links spy fiction writers Graham Greene and John Le Carré (pseudonym for David Moore Cornwell). Greene and Philby were friends; Le Carré used Philby as inspiration for the first novel of his George Smiley trilogy, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974).

John Le Carré. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. New York: Coward-McCann, 1964. First American edition. Private collection

John Le Carré. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. New York: Knopf, 1974.
First American edition. Bowen Spy Fiction Collection

Len Deighton. Funeral in Berlin. New York: Putnam, 1965.
First American edition. Bowen Spy Fiction Collection

Displayed with

Len Deighton. The Ipcress File. Franklin Center, PA: Franklin Library, 1988.  Bowen Spy Fiction Collection

Frederick Forsyth. The Odessa File. New York: Viking Press, 1972.
Lauinger Stacks PR6056.O699 O3

Displayed with

Frederick Forsyth. The Fourth Protocol. New York: Viking Press, 1984.
Bowen Spy Fiction Collection

William F. Buckley. Stained Glass. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978.
First edition. Bowen Spy Fiction Collection
Stained Glass won the American Book Award in 1980.

Ken Follett. Eye of the Needle. New York: Arbor House, 1978.
Bowen Spy Fiction Collection

Tom Clancy. Red Storm Rising. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1986.
First edition. General Rare Books Collection 93A348

Displayed with

Tom Clancy. The Hunt for Red October. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1984. General Rare Books Collection 93A347
These novels came to Special Collections from the Jesuit Community at the University. They had been a part of Father Ron Murphy, S.J.’s collections. Clancy inscribed Red Storm Rising with a nod to the Jesuit tradition of education: “To the Guys who taught me to Think / Thanks!”

Robert Ludlum. The Scarlatti Inheritance; The Osterman Weekend; The Matlock Paper; The Gemini Contenders. New York: Octopus / Heinemann, 1981. Bowen Spy Fiction Collection

Displayed with

Robert Ludlum. The Bourne Identity. New York: Bantam, 1981.
Bowen Spy Fiction Collection

Al Perkins; Ian Fleming. Meet Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Illustrated by John Hanna. New York: Random House, 1968. Private collection.
This version of Fleming’s children’s novel promoted the popular 1968 film.

John Pearson. The Life of Ian Fleming. Sevenoaks: Hodder and Stoughton, 1989. Bowen Military Intelligence Collection MI-15386

Jeffery Deaver. Carte Blanche. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2011. First edition. Bowen Spy Fiction Collection

Displayed with

Jeffery Deaver. Carte Blanche. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011.
First American edition. Bowen Spy Fiction Collection