Ian Fleming is best known as the creator of James Bond (Agent 007). He was also, however, a book collector who, with the guidance of bookseller Percy Muir, assembled a library of more than one thousand volumes representing milestones in modern science, technology, and Western civilization.

Ian Lancaster Fleming was born on 28 May 1908 in the Mayfair district of London. He was the second son of Valentine Fleming and Evelyn Beatrice Ste. Croix Rose. Fleming's father was a wealthy investment banker in the firm of Robert Fleming and Company, which had been founded by Fleming's grandfather. When Fleming was nine years old, his father, serving in France with the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars, was killed in action.

By Valentine Fleming's will, Evelyn Fleming was given control of the income from her husband's fortune as long as she lived and did not remarry. For Fleming, this stipulation meant that he would...