25 February 2009

"Birds of the West Indies"


The first edition of this book is famous. It is not rare or outrageously expensive; a early edition is presently available at Amazon for $50, which of course is a lot for a paperback.

But it is a very famous book. Rather than put the answer to question in the comments section, I'll leave it here, in small print.

The first edition was printed in 1936. The author was an ornithologist (obviously) whose family had an estate in Jamaica. In 1948 an English author vacationed in Jamaica with his mistress, stayed at that estate, and picked up a copy of that book.

The author's name was Ian Fleming, and now you can extrapolate the rest of the story...

2 comments:

  1. You know, it just occurred to me that in Die Another Day, when Bond first meets Jinx, he tells her that he is an ornithologist. LOL.

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  2. ... He not only tells her he's an ornithologist, he's reading this book

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