Double O Seven, James Bond, A Report
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Double O Seven, James Bond, A Report by O. F. (Oswald Frederick) Snelling, was the first book-length analysis printed exploring the Ian Fleming 007 novels published through 1964. It appeared the same month as Fleming’s death, helping the book earn a wide audience for its first edition. It was the only such study approved by Fleming himself.
A lifelong devotee of British thriller writers, Snelling became a professional antiquarian at Hodgson’s, where he met Ian Fleming who came to the auction house seeking research for his Bond novels. When Snelling began work on James Bond, A Report, he learned British novelist Kingsley Amis was also working on a similar title, so Snelling worked quickly to ensure his study would appear first. He was successful; Amis’s The James Bond Dossier appeared in 1965. The two titles have been the subject of comparisons ever since, Snelling often considered to have written the superior contribution.
In Britain the book was reprinted in paperback by Panther Books. It appeared in French, Dutch, Portuguese, Japanese, and Israeli editions and translations. It came out in the United States in 1965 under the imprint of the New American Library, Ian Fleming's own publishers.
[edit] The Literary Critique
Snelling's literary critique of the Bond novels was divided into five sections. First, Snelling examined "His Predecessors," observing the similarities between novelists in the “Clubland Tradition” such as John Buchan and Dornford Yates and how they influenced Fleming. ”His Image" was a section which analyzed Fleming’s descriptions of Bond as a character. "His Women," the longest section, explored Bond’s relationships and how they changed over the course of the series. “His Adversaries” looked at villains like LeChiffre, Dr. No, Mr. Big, and Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Finally, “His Future" looked at possibilities for the Bond character in both books and films as, at the time of its composition, Fleming was still writing Bond novels. The most recent of these, You Only Live Twice, was so new Snelling had to incorporate his observations on the title as footnotes rather than being integrated into the text. The final page was a reproduction of the watermark Snelling noticed on his typing paper which read: “Bond—Extra Strong.” Basically Bond is the man! nothing more nothing less
[edit] Revised Versions
For decades after the original publication, Snelling hoped to issue an updated edition which would include discussions of the final Bond novel by Fleming (Man with the Golden Gun), Fleming’s posthumously published short stories (published in Octopussy), the continuation novels by Kingsley Amis and John Gardner, as well as the film series which received only passing mentions in the original overview. In 1980, he wrote a preface for the prospective revision, which would have used the title he had wanted from the beginning, Double-O Seven: James Bond Under the Microscope. This version was not published until an online version of the book appeared at a website in 2007 which included a collection of letters between Snelling and his literary executor, Ronald Payne.
According to the new preface and the Snelling/Payne correspondence, Snelling would have stressed his preference for the literary 007 as he felt the film series abandoned most of what he saw in the Fleming character. In particular, he disliked the Roger Moore films and ultimately became completely disinterested in anything to do with James Bond.
In fall 2007, discussions were underway to publish a new edition to include new chapters written by new authors.
[edit] External links
O. F. Snelling - Independent Online Edition > Obituaries. Online Edition. 31 January 2002
