“ut my best guess,” Scott wrote, “would be Ray Johnson, who did a lot of Pop covers in that era, and it looks like his style.” Johnson’s other works include the fronts of The World in the Evening, by Christopher Isherwood (1955) Mr. Alas, he couldn’t identify the artist here either. Grant about McGinnis’ portraits of women. According to novelist Bill Crider, who owns a copy of the paperback, “There’s absolutely no signature on that cover, nor is there any credit given to the artist on the inside.” Hoping for a more definitive answer, and because he’s been helpful to me before in solving this sort of puzzle, I dashed off an e-mail inquiry to Art Scott, the co-author of a comprehensive illustrated bibliography, The Paperback Covers of Robert McGinnis (2001), and a contributor to a forthcoming book from Donald M.

So who painted You Asked for It’s pulpish jacket? Well, there’s a mystery for you. This remains a very scarce book, and one that is passionately sought after by Bond fans. The spine of the book reads, ‘She played a man’s game with a woman’s weapon.’ One would hardly recognize this book as an adventure of the suave sophisticated 007 of today. ts illustrated cover features an alluring Vesper Lynd with a leering ‘Jimmy’ pouring a drink. Did the Popular Library honchos really believe 007 needed such a nickname to appeal to often folksier Yankee readers?*Ĭ calls the You Asked for It front “a wonderful piece of Bondamania. “Fleming’s suggestions for a new title, The Double-O Agent and The Deadly Gamble, were disregarded, “in favor of You Asked The novel was subtitled ‘Casino Royale’ and made reference to secret agent 007 as ‘Jimmy Bond’ on the back cover” (left).

They wanted something different, a replacement that was more in keeping with the tough-guy stories then flooding U.S.

(“Apparently, it was feared that American readers would not be able to pronounce ‘Royale,’” quips a piece at ). Two years later, though, when New York-based American Popular Library arranged to release a cheaper, softcover version in the States, the company’s marketing geniuses griped that the name Casino Royale wasn’t sufficiently saleable. The original hardcover edition was brought out in Great Britain back in 1953 by publisher Jonathan Cape. paperback version of Casino Royale, the book that introduced British super-spy James Bond, Agent 007, to the world. You Asked for It was simply the title given to the very first U.S.

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