A Visit to Morin

London: Heinemann, 1959 First edition, first printing. One of 250 copies. Presentation copy. Inscribed by Greene to Ian and Ann Fleming: “For Ian + Ann Fleming / with all good wishes for / the grim season / from Graham Greene. / Christmas 1960.” Publisher’s green cloth, titles stamped in gilt to spine, attached green fabric bookmark; original off-white dust jacket printed in green and black. Fine; in a very good unclipped dust jacket with light toning to edges and spine, minor soiling to front panel, two small blue pen squiggles to front panel, light creasing to top edge of front panel, very small chip to head of spine, and lightly nicked corners. Overall, an excellent copy with an exceptional association. Housed in a custom black quarter-leather folding box. In A Visit to Morin, Pierre Morin, a Catholic novelist, and Dunlop, a wine merchant and fan of Morin’s work, meet by chance on Christmas Eve. The two go back to Morin’s house, where they engage in a personal discussion on Catholicism. This copy is fittingly inscribed by Greene to Ian Fleming and his wife, Ann, on Christmas of 1960. Greene and Fleming were two of the great writers of espionage fiction, Greene penning works like The Confidential Agent, The Quiet American, and the screenplay for The Third Man, and Fleming creating the James Bond series. For their writing, both authors drew heavily from personal experience. Both worked in British intelligence during World War II - Fleming in Britain’s Naval Intelligence Division, and Greene in the Foreign Office. While the two supposedly had a somewhat contentious personal relationship (one rumored example involved Greene, a guest at Fleming’s Goldeneye property, accusing Fleming’s housekeeper of stealing whiskey), Fleming always looked up to Greene as one of his major literary influences. In a 1964 interview with Playboy, Fleming said, “I should think that the great War and Peace thriller would be more likely to be written by a man like Graham Greene or Georges Simenon, because either of them would do it more truthfully and accurately than I ever could.”. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Dust Jacket Included.