James Bond uncollected short stories

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The Heart of Erzulie
)

In the 1950s and 1960s,

secret agent, James Bond, wrote a number of short stories featuring his creation that appeared in the collections For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy and The Living Daylights. Since 1997, several more short stories featuring Bond or set within the official James Bond universe have been published by authors who continued chronicling the world of Fleming's creation. The majority of these stories have, as of 2008, never been collected in book form, unlike the Fleming works. There are five exceptions: "Blast from the Past", "Midsummer Night's Doom" and "Live at Five" by Raymond Benson, "Your Deal, Mr. Bond" by Phillip and Robert King, and "Bond Strikes Camp" by Cyril Connolly
which are discussed below.

Raymond Benson short stories

In the late 1990s, Raymond Benson, who at the time was the official novelist of the James Bond literary franchise, became the first author since Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, to write officially sanctioned short stories featuring the superspy.

Just before his sudden departure from writing Bond novels at the start of 2003, Benson had indicated his intention to write more short pieces and publish a short story collection along the lines of Fleming's For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy and The Living Daylights. This, however, has yet to occur.

To date these three stories remain the only pieces of James Bond literature that have never officially been published in Great Britain. Additionally, between 2001 and 2002, Benson wrote a fourth short story he planned to title "The Heart of Erzulie", but it was never published.

"Blast from the Past"

First publication:

COLD and precedes Zero Minus Ten
. Benson has stated that Playboy cut a third of the story for space reasons.

The first Bond story published by Benson, "Blast from the Past" is a direct sequel to Fleming's

John Gardner
's other Bond stories.

Bond receives a message, apparently from his son James Suzuki (Suzuki's mother is

SIS agent, Bond learns that Irma Bunt, Ernst Stavro Blofeld
's henchwoman, killed James Suzuki as revenge for Blofeld's death (again in You Only Live Twice). Bond ultimately kills Bunt, but his victory is hollow; he must live with having lost his son, and with the knowledge that he was never a real father to him.

The name of Bond's son, James Suzuki, is taken from the

James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007
.

"Blast from the Past" is included in the 2008 omnibus release, The Union Trilogy, which includes three additional Benson Bond novels. This makes "Blast from the Past" the first non-Fleming short story to be published in book form.[1]

"Midsummer Night's Doom"

First publication: Playboy, January 1999 issue. In publication order, this follows The Facts of Death and precedes High Time to Kill.

"Midsummer Night's Doom" is a special story commissioned to help celebrate Playboy's 45th anniversary. By Benson's own admission, the short story is a joke piece.[2]

In the story, Bond is assigned to attend a party at Playboy founder

Russian Mafia
.

While there, Bond meets Hefner, who is aware of his mission and who actually provides Bond with several gadgets a la Q. Bond also has time to enjoy a quick romance with real-life Playmate Lisa Dergan, flirt with other Playmates including Victoria Zdrok, and rub elbows with the likes of actor Robert Culp and singer Mel Tormé.

Dergan has the distinction of being the first real person ever to be awarded the status of Bond Girl. (Several other Playmates are referenced by name in this story, but Dergan is clearly Bond's girl of choice on this adventure.) However, Benson stated in a letter to Playboy that Zdrok was also a Bond Girl in the story.[3]

Some sources give this story the erroneous title "A Midsummer Night's Doom", since the title is a play on William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. "Midsummer's Night's Doom" is included in the 2010 omnibus release, Choice of Weapons, which includes three additional Benson Bond novels.[4]

"Live at Five"

First publication:

Doubleshot
.

Published the week

007 in New York". Running only a few thousand words, if that, it is a brief episode that sees Bond, en route to a date with a female TV news reporter, recalling how he once helped a Russian figure skating champion defect in full view of TV cameras. The reporter, Janet Davies, becomes the second real person to be a Bond girl
, seen daily on Chicago's local ABC station Channel 7 WLS.

"Live at Five" was finally reprinted in the 2010 omnibus release, Choice of Weapons, which includes three additional Benson Bond novels.[4]

"The Heart of Erzulie" (unpublished)

A fourth short story, titled "The Heart of Erzulie", was written by Raymond Benson in-between Never Dream of Dying and The Man with the Red Tattoo, but it was never published because Ian Fleming Publications felt it was "too much of a Fleming pastiche." Benson, himself, acknowledges that it was little more than a time-killer in the interim between the two book projects.[5] The story has since been published in Benson's 2015 e-book anthology 12+1--Twelve Short Thrillers and a Play with all references to James Bond removed.

Samantha Weinberg/Kate Westbrook short stories

In 2006, two additional short stories were written and published by Samantha Weinberg under the pseudonym "Kate Westbrook". These stories are part of The Moneypenny Diaries series, an officially licensed spin-off from the Bond novels series focusing on the character of Miss Moneypenny. In September 2020, both stories were republished as a free ebook titled The Moneypenny Diaries: Secret Chapters.[6]

"For Your Eyes Only, James"

First publication:

Tatler
(November 2006).

Set in September 1956,[7] the story tells of a weekend Bond and Moneypenny share at Royale-les-Eaux.[8]

"Moneypenny's First Date with Bond"

First publication: The Spectator, 11 November 2006.

This story, set just after Bond's assignment to the 00 Section[9] and before the events of Casino Royale,[10] tells of Bond and Moneypenny's first meeting.

Charlie Higson short story

"A Hard Man to Kill"

The original Young Bond short story "A Hard Man to Kill" written by Charlie Higson, is included in the companion book, Danger Society: The Young Bond Dossier, which was released by Puffin Books on 29 October 2009. An extract from the story appears in the paperback edition of By Royal Command. It is the longest James Bond short story yet written.[11][12]

William Boyd short story

"William Boyd Interviews James Bond"

First publication: The Guardian, 28 September 2013 issue.

Written to promote the recent publication of Boyd's Bond novel Solo, the story sees Boyd time-travel back to 1969 to interview James Bond.[13]

Boyd walks through 1960s London to Bond's flat, meets his new housekeeper, Donalda, a character introduced in Solo, and then Bond himself. The two share a drink and then go out for a meal, where Boyd accidentally alludes to his time of origin. The two men part after a friendly warning from Bond to not ask too many questions about him.[13]

The Guardian also published a Q&A by Boyd from this same fictional interview.[14]

Unauthorised works

Several stories and one short story collection published without sanction from Glidrose/IFP warrant mention.

"Some Are Born Great"

"Some Are Born Great" was first published in the 3 September 1959 issue of

From Russia With Love. The story (which is less than a page in length) details an intense card game with Bond facing off against an unseen opponent, only to reveal in the end that it's a game of "Snap" and this is a prepubescent Bond playing against a nanny.[15]

"Bond Strikes Camp"

Cyril Connolly's short story "Bond Strikes Camp" first appeared in the April 1963 issue of The London Magazine. Although a parody, the story clearly mentions Bond by name and code number. An expensive, privately printed edition of 50 copies was made by the Shenval Press in 1963.[16] Soon after, the story appeared in Connolly's miscellany collection Previous Convictions. Author, critic and Bond author Kingsley Amis compared the story unfavourably to The Harvard Lampoon spoof Bond novel Alligator by claiming that "Parodies have their laughter-value, but the laughter is partly affectionate, and the successful parodist is moved partly by wanting to write like his original by wishing he'd thought of doing so first. Mr Cyril Connolly no doubt doesn't wish this in regard to Mr Fleming; his 'Bond Strikes Camp', in which M orders Bond to dress up as a woman, ostensibly for purposes of espionage, and then tries to get him into bed, is much too far from the original, never catches the note, gets elementary details wrong. E.g. M is made to call Bond 'Bond'. This happened last in 1954 (Live and Let Die, ch. 2). Every Fleming fan knows it's either 'James' or '007'."[17]

"Holmes Meets 007"

Then I noticed the crestfallen figure standing near the window." What should we do with Bond?" I asked. "Bond? Oh, send him back to his little bureaucratic niche, I expect. Really, I couldn't be less concerned."

Donald Stanley wrote this short story - under 2000 words - first published in

The San Francisco Examiner on 29 November 1964. The Beaune Press (San Francisco) subsequently published 247 copies of this seven page story in December 1967. There is no copy 222: this is instead numbered 221B. Copies 223 through to 247 are numbered I to XXV and were printed especially for the author's friends.[18]

drug addiction and accuses Watson of being the source of Holmes' narcotics supplier. Once Holmes admits it, Bond aims his Walther PPF [sic] at Watson and announces that Watson is an impostor, and none other than Bond's arch-enemy Ernst Stavro Blofeld - the man who killed Bond's wife Tracy. Holmes throughout the meeting has been fiddling his Stradivarius - much to everyone's annoyance - and brings it crashing down, knocking Bond's gun away. Holmes plunges a needle containing morphine into M's arm, quickly rendering him unconscious. Holmes reveals that M is none other than Professor Moriarty
; Bond is nothing more than a "fairly ignorant tool" who had been unaware of his boss's treachery all this time.

"Toadstool"

The Harvard Lampoon, responsible for the Bond spoof Alligator, published another "J*mes B*nd" story. "Toadstool" appeared in PL*YB*Y, the 1966 Harvard Lampoon parody of Playboy magazine.

"License to Hug"

thought police) in which the 'Therapeutic Hug and Stroke' is the weapon of choice."[19]

"Your Deal, Mr. Bond"

The title piece of Phillip and Robert King's 2002 collection of bridge-related short stories, Your Deal, Mr. Bond,

.

The authors also wrote the 1996 pastiche compilation Farewell, My Dummy, which featured bridge novellas, each one parodies a different author in turn: Jeffrey Archer, Jane Austen, Raymond Chandler, Arthur Conan Doyle and Victor Mollo.

Licence Expired: The Unauthorized James Bond (short story collection)

On 1 January 2015, the original Ian Fleming novels and short stories entered the public domain in Canada and other countries in which the length of copyright remains at the Berne Convention minimum of the life of the author plus 50 years. As a result, it is now legal in those countries for the original writings of Ian Fleming to be republished, or adapted into other media, without permission of the Fleming estate or its agent, Ian Fleming Publications (formerly known as Gildrose Publications). It is also now legal in those countries for original material based on Bond and other characters and concepts introduced in Fleming's written works (though not those elements that are unique to Eon Production's Bond movies) to be published.[21]

In late 2015, independent Canadian publishing house ChiZine Publications released Licence Expired: The Unauthorized James Bond, an anthology of 19 Bond short stories written by various Canadian and non-Canadian authors including

Claude Lalumiere, Robert Wiersema, and Ian Rogers.[22][23] The stories examine different stages of the character's life from childhood to old age.[24] The book's introduction states explicitly that due to copyright issues, it is not authorized for sale outside Canada.[25]
Thus, while the stories within have been collected, they remain unpublished officially outside Canada as of 2023.

007 on the Rocks

Bond Unknown

See also

References

  1. ^ The Literary 007: Bonding in 2008 - Jan. 1, 2008, retrieved 6 January 2008.
  2. ^ "The Raymond Benson CBn Interview". commanderbond.net. Archived from the original on 3 December 2005. Retrieved 30 March 2006.
  3. ^ Benson, Raymond (October 2013). "Dear Playboy". Playboy. p. 15. In the July/August Playmate News, you identify Miss July 1998 Lisa Dergan as the 'only nonfictional Bond Girl written into a James Bond story.' The story, which I wrote, is Midsummer Night's Doom (January 1999). However, Miss October 1994 Victoria Zdrok also appears, as the 'bad' Bond Girl.
  4. ^ a b "Raymond Benson's Choice of Weapons cover art revealed ·". Commanderbond.net. 22 July 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  5. ^ "The Heart of Erzulie". commanderbond.net. Archived from the original on 15 October 2007. Retrieved 30 March 2006.
  6. ^ Cox (25 September 2020). "Two Moneypenny short stories now FREE on Kindle". The Book Bond. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  7. ^ Tanner (6 November 2006). "New James Bond Short Story!". Doubleosection.blogspot.com. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  8. ^ "For Your Eyes Only, James". Angelfire. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  9. ^ "Moneypenny's First Date with Bond". Angelfire. 11 November 2006. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  10. ^ Tanner (11 November 2006). "Another New Bond/Moneypenny Short Story!". Doubleosection.blogspot.com. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  11. ^ "New Young Bond short story preview in By Royal Command paperback". The Young Bond Dossier. Archived from the original on 6 January 2010. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  12. ^ "New Young Bond story is not so short". The Young Bond Dossier. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  13. ^ a b Boyd, William. "William Boyd Interviews James Bond". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  14. ^ Boyd, William. "William Boyd Q&A With James Bond". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  15. ^ Bond, The Book. "Lost James Bond short story uncovered". Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  16. ^ Bookride (31 July 2007). "Cyril Connolly. Bond Strikes Camp.1963". Bookride. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  17. ^ Amis, Kingsley (1965). The James Bond Dossier. London, England: Jonathan Cape. p. 64.
  18. ^ De Waal, Ronald Burt; Vanderburgh, George A. (1994). The Universal Sherlock Holmes. Vol. 4. p. 1360.
  19. .
  20. .
  21. ^ "Copyright quirk leaves James Bond up for grabs in Canada". Globe and Mail. 23 January 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  22. ^ "Licence Expired: The Unauthorized James Bond". ChiZine Publications. Archived from the original on 9 January 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  23. ^ Doctorow, Cory (20 January 2015). "License Expired: an unauthorized James Bond antholog". boingboing. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  24. ^ "Indie Toronto publisher printing unauthorized James Bond book". Inside Toronto. 9 November 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2016.