The Real James Bond – A True Story of Identity Theft, Avian Intrigue and Ian Fleming, by Jim Wright (Schiffer Publishing, 2020)
Most of
the people of the civilized world are familiar with James Bond – the most famous spy
in history, either from the 100 million books Ian Fleming wrote that were sold,
or the literally billions of people who have seen the popular movies originally
based on Fleming’s stories.
But few
people know about the real James Bond, the Philadelphia ornithologist and
author of the book “Birds of the West
Indies.”
Jim
Wright comes into the real James Bond story as a birdwatcher from Philadelphia,
author of birding books – “The Nature of
the Meadowlands,” “Jungle of the Maya”
and “Hawk Mountain,” and birding
columnist for the Bergen (NJ) Record,
near were he currently lives.
Although
it appears he has never met the real James Bond, he did do his research and
quotes extensively from the published record, especially Mrs. Bond’s books “How 007 Really Got His Name,” and “Far Afield in the Caribbean,” as well
as David Contesta’s official biography of James Bond, the former curator of Birds at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences and author of
the books “Birds of the West Indies”
and “Field Guide to the Birds of the West
Indies.”
It just
so happened that English author Ian Fleming, vacationing at his Jamaican beach
house he called Goldeneye, kept a copy of “Birds
of the West Indies” on his breakfast table, and when it came time for him
to sit down and write the “spy story to end all spy stories,” which was to be “Casino Royale,” he took the name of the
author of the book in front of him – James Bond, for his spy, who
also has the moniker Double-O-Seven.
While
there are many real life spies who they say were used to develop the character
of 007, including Dusko Popov, Canadian Sir William Stephenson (INTREPID), Ian Fleming’s brother Peter – and Fleming
himself, there is only one real James Bond, whose name is James Bond, the
author of the book “Birds of the West
Indies.”
I came
into the story from a different direction – having read a Philadelphia Magazine article on the assassination of President
Kennedy written by Michael Marlow that mentioned a man named Cummins
Catherwood, and his Catherwood Foundation, though his connection to the
assassination was not spelled out. I did however, notice in the book “The Invisible Government” by David Wise
and Thomas Ross, that Catherwood’s Foundation was listed as a footnote among
other similar foundations that were used by the CIA to secretly dispurse money
for its covert operations.
So I did
what I usually do when I come across a new name, and went to the Philadelphia
Bulletin newspaper archives, also called the morgue, and looked up Catherwood’s
newspaper clips. The Bulletin paid dozens of women to clip every article of every edition of
their paper, circling each name and putting the clipping that referred to that
person in an envelop with his name on it and filed it away.
Catherwood’s
envelope was quite thick, and as I sat and read it the CIA connections were
readily apparent – the funding of the Cuban Aide Relief to assist professional
Cubans who escaped Castro’s Cuba, support for the Russian Orthodox Church
Outside Russia, a trip as a tourist to Soviet Russia, and the construction of a
large sailing yacht, “The Vigilant.”
Then I
came across an interesting article about how Catherwood sailed the Vigilant
down to the Caribbean with four scientists aboard, including James Bond, “whose
main interest is birds.”
For a
moment I thought it was a joke, a CIA operative with Catherwood was using the
alias of James Bond, but then I looked at the date – 1948 – years before Ian
Fleming began writing his 007 books. I then went over to the Bulletin file and
looked under Bond, James, and came across a much thinner envelop with articles
about Bond, his book “Birds of the West
Indies,” and his wife Mary Wickham, who wrote the book “How 007 Really Got His Name.”
When I
got a copy of “Birds of the West Indies,” I took it up to the Bond’s apartment
at Hill House in Chestnut Hill, adjacent to the train station and knocked on
their door. Mrs. Bond answered and when I showed her the book and asked to have
it signed by Mr. Bond she called out, “Jimmy, there’s a young man here to see
you.”
Jimmy? I
thought. Yes, James Bond is very American, and he appeared appropriately in a
tux, as the Bonds were getting ready to go to a social ball. He graciously
signed my book, and asked me to come back sometime to talk, and I did return a
number of times and had pleasant conversations with him, some of which I
recount in my yet unpublished manuscript – “The
Mystery of Goldeneye – James Bond and Ian Fleming – The Men and the Myth,” and
blog – James Bond Authenticus.
In Chapter 009, Wright notes: that John Pearson’s fictional “James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007,” that “posited that Fleming’s real purpose in writing the 007 stories was to make his fictional Bond such a comic-book superhero that the Russians would fail to take the real Bond seriously, thereby allowing him to continue his secret work. Other theorists – notably William Kelly in his blog James Bond Authenticus – have explored that possibility, combing through Bond’s career and Mary’s memories for clues pointing to a life of espionage. Could it have been possible?”
Wright
mentions a few of the clues – Bond attended St. Paul’s School, that provided
numerous OSS agents during World War II, and Cambridge Trinity College, home of
the Cambridge spy ring, and was a member of the Pitt Club, a hunting and dining
club that also included Sir Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess, two of the most
notorious double agents of our time. He neglects to mention Bond’s voyage on a
ship with Somerset Maughan, an important literary figure and British
Intelligence agent, his trip with CIA bagman Cumming Catherwood, his birding
tour of the Bay of Pigs shortly before the CIA invasion and numerous other
cluesq.
But my
hypothesis is not just to theorize on whether the real James Bond was a spy,
though there’s much evidence of it, but that most if not all of the fictional
characters Fleming writes about are based on real people known to Fleming –
including Bond, 007’s CIA sidekick Felix Leiter, Quarrel the Cayman islander, “M”
and “Q,” Pussy Galore, even Catherwood himself is parodied in one of Fleming’s
short stories.
At first
I was a bit leery about Wright’s book, as I was familiar with the previously
published literature, and was afraid Jim Wright would have easily appropriated
some of my work much as Fleming had appropriated the name for his secret agent
from James Bond. But no worries, Wright puts together a very detailed and
photographically illustrated biography of the real Bond, but he doesn’t appropriate any of my
work, so I still have a chance of getting published some day.
The
closest my manuscript came to getting published was when an editor for Turner
Books in Atlanta called to say they were going to discuss publishing my
manuscript at a board meeting that day, but I was later informed that when the
subject came up it was dismissed because they had already agreed to publish
Andrew Lycette’s second official biography of Ian Fleming (after John Pearson),
and the Lycette’s book and mine would clash.
The one good thing that Jim Wright’s book “The Real James Bond” does is put to rest the false impression given by both official biographies of Ian Fleming – that the real James Bond took the whole thing as a joke, when in fact he deeply resented the invasion of his privacy and the problems that the whole 007 phenomenon caused him.
As Wright puts it, "....The tale of Ian Fleming and the real James Bond has developed a life of its own, gradually accumulating embellishments and inaccuracies - beginning with the oft-repeated assertion that Bond gave Fleming permission to take his name and that Bond enjoyed the fame. In fact, Bond grew to hate the 007 connection even as his wife, Mary, did her best to promote it. And although the appropriation of his identity caught Bond by surprise, there is a long tradition of ornithologist spies - including at least seven of his contemporaries. Some people have even speculated that the real James Bond was a spy as well."
When they finally met at Goldeneye, in February 1964, six months before Fleming's death, Bond told him right off, "'I don't read your books. My wife reads them, but I never do.' I didn't want to fly under false colors." To which Fleming responded, "I don't blame you."
The problems included lonely
girls finding his name in the public phone book and calling him at all hours of
the night. It also made it hard getting across borders with the three main tools of his trade - shotgun for shooting bird specimens, scalpel for cleaning them, and arsenic for curing them. The 290 bird specimens he collected over the decades are now enshrined at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, where he was curator of Birds.
Wright’s chapter on whether the real James Bond was a spy skips over all of the evidence I had uncovered, but it does get a response from the CIA on the question. Michael Lavergne, the CIA’s information and policy coordinator, wrote a response to Wright's Freedom of Information Act request:
“After conducting a search reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant
documents, we did not locate any responsive records that would reveal an
openly acknowledge CIA affiliation with the subject. To the extent your request
also seeks records that would reveal a classified association between the CIA
and the subject, if any exist, we can neither confirm or deny having such
records, pursuant to Section 3.6(a) of Executive Order 13526, as amended. If a
classified association between the subject and this organization were to exist,
records revealing such a relationship would be properly classified and require
continued safeguards against unauthorized disclosure.”
So if James Bond was a real CIA operative they wouldn't tell you anyway.
Jim
Wright’s book is a clear, concise, and graphic portrait of James Bond, American
ornithologist, from whom Ian Fleming appropriated the name for his secret agent
007. While those billions of people who are thrilled with the stories and
movies will probably not be interested in him, the real James Bond did live a
life even more interesting than the fictional 007. Those naturalists interested in
birds, and real 007 aficionados will find this book fascinating, especially
since the other published works on the subject are out of print or hard to
find.
With the
recent death of Sean Connery, and the impending release of the next 007 film,
this book is timed right, and I hope people read it and enjoy the story, as it gives life to the possibility of my
manuscript - The Mystery of Goldeneye - James Bond and Ian Fleming - the Men and the Myth, will eventually be published someday.
William
Kelly
December
31, 2020
