James Fleming, Book Collector editor

Notice of death

The Book Collector is a literary journal founded by Ian Fleming in 1952.¹ It publishes quarterly and includes articles about book collecting and bibliography. It carries news about booksellers and their catalogues, book reviews, interviews with librarians and obituaries of scholars and collectors. The archive contains all work since the beginning. Like its founder, “we are as no other.”²

On fifty years of The Book Collector’s publication in 2003 noted bibliographer and textual critic, Thomas Tanselle³ noted, "for over a half-century now, THE BOOK COLLECTOR has been demonstrating --to experienced book people and to newcomers alike--the reciprocal relationship, the inextricable connection, between bibliophily and scholarship."⁴

The Book Collector produces Podcasts at Soundcloud.

James Fleming

Press release from The Book Collector.⁵

It is with great sadness that we have to let you know that our much-loved editor, James Fleming, passed away last week after a sudden illness.

James took on The Book Collector as proprietor in 2016 and later editor in 2018, returning the publication to the Fleming fold. He loved his work and the journal with a passion and felt very much at home in the world of book collecting, making many friends around the world. We are sure he will be sorely missed by all.

James would want to see The Book Collector continuing for many years to come. We, the editorial board and his family, have every intention of following his vision and dedication to this beloved journal.

James Fleming, 1944-2024

James Fleming and Clive Farahar, The Book Collector on Film

1. The best reference book, which deals with all aspects of IanFleming’s book collecting, is the Spring 2017 issue of The Book Collector (288 pp., many illustrations). Articles:

• My Uncle Ian James Fleming

• Ian Fleming and The Book Collector Fergus Fleming

• Books That Had Started Something: Ian Fleming’s Book Collection Joel Silver

• The Death of ‘The Doctor’: Ian Fleming intervenes James Fergusson

• Printing and the Mind of Man: a Magnificent Affair

• Percy Muir: Ian Fleming’s Bookseller Nicolas Barker

• Friendship and Fiction: Ian Fleming and Robert Harling A.S.G. Edwards

• James Bond Invades America: A Tale of Three Publishers John Cork

• Collecting Ian Fleming: The Making of a Bibliography Jon Gilbert

• Two Bond Collectors: Michael VanBlaricum & Jeremy Miles: Sheila Markham

• The Bond Market: an 007 Price Index James Fergusson

2. The Book Collector- About.

3. G. Thomas Tanselle- American textual critic, bibliographer, and book collector, especially known for his work on Herman Melville. He was Vice President of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation from 1978 to 2006. A president of the Bibliographical Society of America.

4. Tanselle, G. Thomas. 2003. “Fifty Years On: Bibliography Then and Now.” The Book Collector 52 (4). Winter: 459–70.

5. James Fleming, memorial notice. (26 February 1944 – 22 November 2024) -The Book Collector..