Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, “Casino Royale” was published on August 13, 1953.
He arrived just in time.
In Tony Bennett’s and Janet Woollacott’s 1987 book “Bond and Beyond: The Political Career of a Popular Hero,” the authors point out that Bond’s literary function was to lend England — smarting after the damage of the second World War, and currently embroiled in a Cold War — a little bit of patriotic panache.
James Bond was a tough, get-the-job-done jet-setter who, over the course of his first novel, manages to out-gamble the wicked Le Chiffre, a member of the Russian secret service.
It’s a simple story, but an exciting one.”Casino Royale” was adapted to American television in 1954 as part of the anthology series “Climax!” In that version, Barry Nelson played James Bond, now American, against Peter Lorre’s Le Chiffre.
James Bond would infiltrate movie theaters in 1962 with “Dr.
No” starring Sean Connery,
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