A series of steamy love letters in which James Bond author Ian Fleming reveals his sadistic side are to be sold by renowned book dealer Peter Harrington at this year's New York Antiquarian Book Fair, which runs April 3-6.
 Ian Fleming's relationships were notoriously steamy, and are reflected in his James Bond books |
The letters are written to Edith Morpurgo - Fleming's early Austrian girlfriend - in German. Dating to the early 1930s, they predate the James Bond books considerably - a rarity, as little from before Fleming became famous survives.
Torn and taped together, the letters are expected to sell for as much as �47,500 ($79,024).
Paul Fraser Collectibles has one of only five signed photographs of Ian Fleming for sale - a must-have collectible for James Bond fans.
"If I were to say 'love' you would only argue, and then I would have to whip you and you would cry and I don't want that. I only want for you to be happy. But I would also like to hurt you because you have earned it and in order to tame you like a little wild animal. So be careful, you," writes Fleming.
This is not the first time that Fleming has revealed his sadomasochistic tendencies: he and his later wife, Anne Charteris, shared a notoriously tempestuous relationship in which both were beaten with slippers, whips, hairbrushes and wet towels.
"They were written so early in his career that he was of course not famous … so the chances of somebody keeping this kind of material are quite low … They're by an author well before he became an author, playing around with the things he would turn to gold," commented Peter Harrington's specialist Adam Douglas to the Guardian newspaper.
Also included are two sordid illustrations, including one titled "where I want to kiss you" and another named "I want to…with you".
The letters chart the course of Fleming's relationship with Morpurgo, who would marry another man in 1939, but died along with her two-year-old daughter in Auschwitz during the second world war.
