Read on Twitter
A little more than a month to go until Trump is ejected from the White House. A perfect time for a Secret Origins of James Bond thread, right? Nothing says end-of-year like a deep dive into England’s favorite spy.
I have a License to Tweet.
1/18
I have a License to Tweet.
1/18
Now, there’s been a lot of work already done on Bond’s extra-diegetical origins. (One thing Bond never has been is under-studied). The Wikipedia page ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspirations_for_James_Bond) on the likely inspirations for Bond is large.
However.
2/
However.
2/
There’s one (likely) inspiration for Bond that nobody (that I’m aware of) has written about. So let’s set aside everything on that Wikipedia page and jump back to 1939.
Ian Fleming ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fleming), creator of Bond, is at this point a ne’er-do-well.
3/
Ian Fleming ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fleming), creator of Bond, is at this point a ne’er-do-well.
3/
Fleming was an academic bust, a failure as a banker, a failure as a stockbroker, a notorious (and gonorrhea-ridden) whore, & someone who was getting by on his family connections.
But for some reason Fleming got a job offer—from the Director of Naval Intelligence, no less.
4/
But for some reason Fleming got a job offer—from the Director of Naval Intelligence, no less.
4/
Naval Intelligence was the best of the British intelligence agencies at this time (May, 1939, four months before WW2 kicked off), & Godfrey, head of the agency, wanted Fleming to be his personal assistant, despite the fact that Fleming wasn’t qualified for the job in any way. 5/
But, surprise! Fleming worked out. He had charm, if nothing else, and charm is what Godfrey lacked. And Fleming proved to be good at the administrative side of his job as well. So when WW2 began, Fleming was well-placed to hear all sorts of stories by and about secret agents.
6/
6/
One of those secret agents was Fleming’s brother, Peter. He’d been recruited into Military Intelligence a few months earlier than Ian had been, and by early 1941 had spent time in action and in planning the resistance to the potentially imminent German invasion.
7/
7/
Important to this thread: Peter Fleming spent time in Norway in ’39. (See https://www.007.info/the-other-fleming-the-clandestine-world-of-peter-fleming/ for more on Fleming’s rather adventurous WW2).
Peter certainly had time to tell Ian about things he learned while in Norway.
8/
Peter certainly had time to tell Ian about things he learned while in Norway.
8/
Also from Norway? A Norwegian operative who Fleming once hosted for dinner during the war. ( https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/behind-the-scenes/blog/christmas-collection-ian-fleming-norwegian-spy-and-smuggled).
My thesis is that, via Peter or the Norwegian agent, Ian Fleming learned about Øvre Richter Frich, a then-famous Norwegian author.
9/
My thesis is that, via Peter or the Norwegian agent, Ian Fleming learned about Øvre Richter Frich, a then-famous Norwegian author.
9/
During WW2 Frich (1872-1945; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%98vre_Richter_Frich) didn’t write much. He was living in Sweden, enjoying his retirement. But in the 1910s, 1920s, & 1930s Frich was one of the most popular writers in Norway. His specialty? Action-adventure novels.
10/
10/
(An apposite comparison for Frich, in fact, is Ian Fleming).
Frich’s bestselling books, the series he was best known for, were the twenty-one novels he wrote from 1911-1935 about Dr. Jonas Fjeld, international adventurer.
( http://jessnevins.com/pulp/pulpf/fjeld2.html).
11/
Frich’s bestselling books, the series he was best known for, were the twenty-one novels he wrote from 1911-1935 about Dr. Jonas Fjeld, international adventurer.
( http://jessnevins.com/pulp/pulpf/fjeld2.html).
11/
Many of Fjeld’s externals don’t match Bond’s, admittedly. Fjeld is a blond Norwegian giant. A scientist, inventor, & adventurer, he lives in a castle on the Uranienborg in Norway. Fjeld’s main enemy is the Black Vultures, the premier gang of the “international underworld.”
12/
12/
Fjeld invents bulletproof metals, super-fast airplanes, and the Flyvefisken, a high-tech flying sub armed with advanced weaponry. In the creation of these inventions Fjeld is assisted by Ilmari Erko, a Finnish Big-Headed Dwarf Genius ( http://jessnevins.com/pulp/glossary.html#BHDG).
13/
13/
But there are some strong similarities between the Fjeld & Bond novels. Fjeld’s personality is a lot like Bond’s. The Jonas Fjeld novels have all the misogyny, racism, and antisemitism of the Bond novels (reflecting the real-world views of each character’s creators).
14/
14/
The enemies of both characters are similar: international conspiracies, enemy spies, the Russians, and the “International Bolshevik Conspiracy.”
And—this is crucial--both Fjeld and Bond have a prominent ally named https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Leiter Felix Leiter.
15/
And—this is crucial--both Fjeld and Bond have a prominent ally named https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Leiter Felix Leiter.
15/
Bond’s Leiter is a CIA agent. Fjeld’s Leiter is a Pinkerton agent who takes on espionage cases & fights against the same conspiracies that Fjeld does. *And* both Bond’s Leiter and Fjeld’s Leiter lose an arm and a leg when captured by one of Bond’s/Fjeld’s Big Bads. (Srsly).
16/
16/
I can believe in parallel development between Ian Fleming and Ovre Richter Frich--but not in both authors using a uniquely-named supporting character who suffers the same gruesome maiming in the same circumstances. That's not credible as a mere coincidence.
17/
17/
I think Ian Fleming, in conversation w/older brother Peter and/or the Norwegian spy, learned enough about Frich & Jonas Fjeld that he decided to lift elements from the Fjeld novels for use in his own spy novels. Frich was unknown in the U.K.—the perfect author to steal from. 18/
Fleming's hardly the only author to covertly sample a better writer’s novels in his own works. Fleming had talent--but that’s never stopped a sampler before.
(Info on Fjeld & Leiter from Nils Nordberg’s Døden i Kiosken (2000) & Nils Parelius’ De Gamle Heftseriene (1987)). 19/19
(Info on Fjeld & Leiter from Nils Nordberg’s Døden i Kiosken (2000) & Nils Parelius’ De Gamle Heftseriene (1987)). 19/19
