James Bond (January 4, 1900 – February 14, 1989) was an ornithologist and author of Birds of the Caribbean (1936), which was a highly successful book and printed in eleven different editions. It was indeed considered the definitive work on the subject. Since Ian Fleming was himself a keen birdwatcher, and a resident of Jamaica, he decided to "steal" his name for the character James Bond.
Bond's wife, the author Mary Fanning Wickham Bond née Porcher, wrote several memoirs about her husband, died a few years later in 1997.
Biography[]
Bond himself was originally an American from Philadelphia, but grew up in England from the age of 14, attending Harrow school. (The fictional James Bond went to Harrow's rival, Eton College, and later Fettes). After attending Cambridge University, he later returned to the States, and became notable in ornithology, mounting expeditions to the Amazon, Orinoco, ore-revolutionary Cuba and elsewhere. In fact, he visited over 100 Caribbean islands in his work, including Jamaica.[1]
Bond was independently wealthy, and after a short career in banking, turned to his real love, birds. Bond produced a number of scientific papers and books and arguably outstripped Fleming's own written production in terms of word count.
Fleming wrote to the real life Mrs. Mary Bond, "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born."[2]
The first to link the two Bonds was an anonymous reviewer in the Sunday Times in 1960. Some suspect the writer may have been Fleming himself, since it reads like his style:
To show maybe that his life is not all sadomasochism, Smith and Wessons, and écrevisse-tails in a white wine and brandy, Bond has revealed himself as a bird-watcher … As the subject of West Indian birds is not without its sensational aspects, one must hope that Mr. Bond has seen fit to preserve a decent discretion, particularly in his treatment of the nuptial plumage of the copper-rumped hummingbird (Amazilia tobaci) and the private life of the scaly-breasted thrasher. P.S. Terrible mistake! I now find that the author of Birds of the West Indies is a different James Bond, Curator at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and a top banana in ornithology.[3]
Fleming did not contact him about using his name in the books, and the real life Bond did not learn of Fleming's character until the early 1960s, when Fleming's James Bond books became popular in the U.S., after President Kennedy had mentioned them among his favourite reads.
In 1964, Fleming was on his annual winter migration to his home Goldeneye (itself named after a duck) in Jamaica, when the ornithologist James Bond and his wife spotted Fleming unexpectedly, and decided to drop by conduct some closer observations. This was the first time Fleming and Bond had met. Mary Bond told Fleming that her husband saw the use of his name for the character as a good joke, to which Fleming replied "I can only offer your James Bond unlimited use of the name Ian Fleming...Perhaps one day he will discover some particularly horrible species of bird which he would like to christen in an insulting fashion."[4]
At the time, Fleming was in fact very ill and only had six months to live. He was initially suspicious about the Mr & Mrs Bond, but after they answered several questions to his satisfaction, Fleming was happy to receive them. Fleming was in the middle of filming a CBC documentary, which provable to be a remarkable coincidence. He said, “This is a bonanza for the C.B.C.! I never saw the man before in my life but here he is, the real James Bond," and told the ornithologist “This’ll sell even more of your books and mine!”
Later in the documentary, Fleming is able to point out a copy of Bond's book, and shows his inspiration.
As the couple were getting ready to leave, Fleming gave Bond an as-yet-unpublished copy of You Only Live Twice signed, “To the real James Bond, from the Thief of his Identity, Ian Fleming. Feb. 5, 1964 – a great day!” In December 2008 the book was put up for auction, eventually fetching $84,000 (£56,000).[5][6]
This was the only time Fleming and Bond met, but it appears they both enjoyed themselves.
Tributes[]
Bond's "Birds of the West Indies" as featured in Die Another Day
In the novel of Dr. No Fleming also paid tribute to Bond's work by basing a large ornithological sanctuary on Dr. No's island in the Bahamas... and Bond kills a character by burying him in guano.
A documentary called The Real James Bond: Ian Fleming, Ornithology, and Conservation in the Caribbean was released discussing him.
In the 2002 Bond film Die Another Day, the fictional Bond, played by Pierce Brosnan, can be seen examining Birds of the West Indies in an early scene that takes place in Havana, Cuba. The author's name (James Bond) on the front cover is obscured. In the same film, when Bond first meets Jinx (Halle Berry), he introduces himself as an ornithologist. In the 2015 Bond film Spectre, the same book was seen in a promotional on-set photo, which is supposed to be appearing in an alternate take of a scene taking place in Bond's Chelsea apartment.[7] However, it is nowhere to be found in the final film.
References[]
- ↑ https://ornithology.com/bond-james-bond/
- ↑ Wright, Jim, Who Was the Real James Bond?: Author Ian Fleming named his 007 after an influential ornithologist, Smithsonian, September 29, 2021
- ↑ https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2016/06/13/bond-james-bond-birds-books-bond/#.WzUOJNJKiUk
- ↑ Mrs. James Bond: "Ian Fleming". In "Letters to the Editors", Life 4 November 1966, p. 22A.
- ↑ Ian Fleming's 'You Only Live Twice' Sells For $84,000 At Auction. CommanderBond.net.
- ↑ Lot 103, Ian Fleming sgd 1st British ed You Only Live Twice. LiveAuctioneers.com.
- ↑ Birds of the West Indies by James Bond. James Bond Lifestyle (2008-06-29).