James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007
First edition cover
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| Author | John Pearson |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Bartholomew Wilkins and Partners (Sidgwick & Jackson ed.) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | James Bond |
| Genre | Biography, Spy novel |
| Publisher | Sidgwick & Jackson |
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Publication date
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1973 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 317 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC | 2736297 |
| 823/.9/14 | |
| LC Class | PZ4.P36247 Jam PR6066.E2 |
James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007 (laterJames Bond: The Authorised Biography) by John Pearson, is a fictional biography of James Bond, first published in 1973; Pearson also wrote the biography The Life of Ian Fleming (1966).
The Authorized Biography of 007 was not commissioned by Glidrose Publications. It originated as a spoof novel for publisher Sidgwick & Jackson. However, Pearson knew Peter Janson-Smith, the Glidrose chairman, who gave permission for the work to be published. Consequently, this is the only James Bond book from Glidrose, between 1953 and 1987, not first published by Jonathan Cape, additionally, it is the only Bond novel with a shared copyright credit; Pearson is the only Bond novelist so recognised.
The novel's canonical status as biography is debatable. Some fans consider it canon with Ian Fleming's James Bond novel series, while other aficionados consider it apocryphal. Elements of the biography are contradicted by "official" Bond fiction, notably Charlie Higson's Young Bond series, which suggests that James Bond was born in Switzerland, as opposed to Pearson's suggestion that Bond was born in Wattenscheid, Germany. Unlike the later Bond novels by John Gardner and Raymond Benson, which are not of (although still based upon) Fleming's continuity, such is not the case with Pearson's book, along with the continuation novel Colonel Sun, by Kingsley Amis, (to which Pearson refers). As those books occur in the same time as Fleming's Bond novels, their being canonical with Fleming's books is debatable, yet Pan Books, one British publisher of Bond novels, includes Pearson's book, James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007, as an official series entry of their first paperback edition series.
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