Live and Let Die (novel)

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For other uses, see Live and Let Die.

**Live and Let Die**

2002 Penguin Books paperback edition
Author	Ian Fleming
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	James Bond
Genre(s)	Spy novel
Publisher
Released	April 5, 1954
Media Type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	NA
Preceded by	Casino Royale
Followed by	Moonraker

Live and Let Die is the second novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. First published by Jonathan Cape on April 5, 1954, it is considered one of Fleming's most controversial novels due to its depiction of Afro-Caribbean people. In 2002 for the first time in the United States since the book was published, the original title of chapter five ("Nigger Heaven") was used.

In 1973 the novel was adapted as the the eighth official film in the EON Productions Bond franchise and the first to star Roger Moore as James Bond. Besides the film of the same name, major plot elements from this novel appeared in two other Bond films: For Your Eyes Only (1981) and Licence to Kill (1989).

1 Plot summary
2 Trivia
3 Publication history
4 Comic strip adaptation
5 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

James Bond 007 is sent to New York City to investigate "Mr. Big", an underworld voodoo leader who is suspected by M of selling 17th century gold coins to finance Soviet spy operations in America. These gold coins have been turning up in Harlem and Florida and are suspected of being part of a treasure that was buried in Jamaica by the Welsh pirate Sir Henry Morgan. Although Bond was reluctant to take on the mission when he was briefed, Bond's attitude quickly changes upon learning that Mr. Big is an agent of SMERSH and that this mission offers him a chance of retaliation for previously being tortured by SMERSH operative Le Chiffre and branded on his hand by Le Chiffre's SMERSH assassin in Casino Royale.

1965 Pan Books paperback edition.

In Harlem, Bond meets up with his counterpart in the CIA, Felix Leiter, and the two are captured by Mr. Big where Bond is subsequently quizzed by Big's fortune telling-girlfriend, Solitaire. After escaping with Solitaire, they all go to St. Petersburg, Florida where they confirm in a warehouse that Mr. Big is indeed smuggling 17th century coins underneath sand in fish tanks. While at the warehouse, Solitaire is recaptured by Big's minions and Leiter loses an arm and a leg after being fed to a shark.

Bond continues his mission in Jamaica where he meets Quarrel and John Strangways, the head of station in Jamaica. Later Bond swims through shark and barracuda infested waters to Mr. Big's island and manages to plant a limpet mine on the hull of his boat before being captured once again by Mr. Big. In the grand finale, Big ties both Solitaire and Bond up to his boat and attempts to drag them over the shallow coral reef, however, they are saved once Bond's limpet mine explodes.

[edit] Trivia

According to Win Scott Eckert, 'Live And Let Die' is set between January and February 1952.
Live and Let Die was originally titled The Undertaker's Wind. The title was used for the seventeenth chapter.
A sizable portion of the novel is devoted to voodoo, a subject of much interest to Ian Fleming.
In one scene, Bond reads The Traveller's Tree by Patrick Leigh Fermor, a friend of Fleming's.
Bond's underwater swim through the coral reefs to Mr. Big's island was inspired by Fleming's first scuba diving experience with Jacques Cousteau in 1953. Fleming describes his experience in length in a similar description to Bond's own experience in 3 articles for The Sunday Times in which Fleming covered a salvage operation of a Graeco-Roman galley from around 250 BC.

[edit] Publication history

April 5, 1954, Jonathan Cape, hardcover, first British edition.
- Jacket devised by Ian Fleming and executed by Kenneth Lewis..
- 7,500 total first edition copies were printed.
April 1955, Macmillan, hardcover, first American edition.
June 1956, Permabooks, paperback, first American edition.
October 18, 1957, Pan Books, paperback, first British edition.
February 23, 1978, Triad/Panther, paperback, British, ISBN 0-586-04521-X.
1981, Triad/Granada, paperback, British, ISBN 0-586-04521-X.
1988, Coronet Books, paperback, British, ISBN 0-340-42570-9. Introduction by Anthony Burgess.
April 4, 2002, Viking/Penguin, hardcover, British, ISBN 0-14-100301-4.
April 2003, Penguin Books, paperback, American, ISBN 0-14-200323-9.
October 26, 2006, Penguin Books, paperback, British. Introduction by Louise Welsh

[edit] Comic strip adaptation

Main article: James Bond comic strips

Fleming's original novel was adapted as a daily comic strip which was published in the British Daily Express newspaper and syndicated around the world. The adaptation ran from December 15, 1958 to March 28, 1959. The story was truncated, omitting much of the detail and background information to compress the story into 15 weeks of strips, making Live and Let Die much shorter and less faithful than the previous strip Casino Royale.

The adaptation was written by Henry Gammidge and illustrated by John McLusky. The strip was reformatted from the original cells of the strip and reprinted in full in the 1967 James Bond Annual, the only 007 strip to be reprinted in this way. Titan Books reprinted the strip in the early 1990s and again by Titan in 2005 as part of the Casino Royale collection that includes Casino Royale and Moonraker.