Beginning in mid-April, the University of Illinois will celebrate the author and his favorite character through The Birth of Bond: Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale at 60. He collected, edited, and published books…and created one of the world’s most recognizable popular culture icons, James Bond. A 1967 film did little better, but a revival 40 years later, with a handsome newcomer named Daniel Craig in the lead part, proved a great success.Ian Fleming was a journalist, a soldier, a spy, a playboy, an adventurer, and the son of a member of Parliament. It did reasonably well, considering last-minute cuts to bring it to the time format eviscerated most of its soul.

Fleming did secure an adaptation deal with CBS for one episode on its Climax! show. Two publishers passed on it, and Macmillan Publishing Co, who picked it up, managed to sell only 4,000 copies. In the U.S., the book failed to get much traction. The initial run sold out within a month two subsequent runs sold out quickly also. Fleming designed the cover himself, but the book practically sold itself. On this day, April 13, in 1953, Fleming’s first novel about a British spy codenamed “007” went on sale in the UK. As for inspiration, Fleming certainly had enough interesting experiences during his wartime duties in the Admiralty, but he only started the book seven years after, when he was getting ready to propose to his girlfriend. Ian Fleming named the chief protagonist of his first novel after the author of a guide of birds, wanting him to be a dull, uninteresting man who just happened to fall in amongst interesting events. The name “James Bond” was not intended to send shivers down the spine of anyone.

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