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First edition, first impression, the dedication copy, inscribed to Ernest Cuneo by the author on the front free endpaper, "To Ernie, who started these thunderballs rolling! From Ian". The printed dedication reads, "To Ernest Cuneo, Muse." Ernest L. Cuneo (1905–1988) was an American lawyer and newspaperman. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he was appointed a liaison officer between the OSS, British Security Coordination (a part of MI6), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Department of State, and US President Franklin Roosevelt. While working with British Intelligence, he became a close friend of Ian Fleming, as well as Roald Dahl, Noël Coward, and Ivar Bryce. After the war, Cuneo joined with Ivar Bryce and a group of investors, including Ian Fleming, to gain control of the North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA). When Fleming was considering writing detective fiction, Cuneo introduced Fleming to elements of the New York underworld. Cuneo was exactly the kind of affable, larger-than-life character calculated to appeal to Fleming. A college football star gone to fat, Cuneo was almost as wide as he was tall. Fleming named a taxi driver in Diamonds Are Forever "Ernie Cureo" (sic). Fleming later credited Cuneo with more than half the plot for Goldfinger. As Fleming's inscription acknowledges, Cuneo was crucial to the genesis of Thunderball. In mid-1958, Fleming and Ivar Bryce began talking about the possibility of a Bond film. First edition, first impression, the dedication copy, inscribed to Ernest Cuneo by the author on the front free endpaper, "To Ernie, who started these thunderballs rolling! From Ian". The printed dedication reads, "To Ernest Cuneo, Muse." Ernest L. Cuneo (1905–1988) was an American lawyer and newspaperman. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he was appointed a liaison officer between the OSS, British Security Coordination (a part of MI6), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Department of State, and US President Franklin Roosevelt. While working with British Intelligence, he became a close friend of Ian Fleming, as well as Roald Dahl, Noël Coward, and Ivar Bryce. After the war, Cuneo joined with Ivar Bryce and a group of investors, including Ian Fleming, to gain control of the North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA). When Fleming was considering writing detective fiction, Cuneo introduced Fleming to elements of the New York underworld. Cuneo was exactly the kind of affable, larger-than-life character calculated to appeal to Fleming. A college football star gone to fat, Cuneo was almost as wide as he was tall. Fleming named a taxi driver in Diamonds Are Forever "Ernie Cureo" (sic). Fleming later credited Cuneo with more than half the plot for Goldfinger. As Fleming's inscription acknowledges, Cuneo was crucial to the genesis of Thunderball. In mid-1958, Fleming and Ivar Bryce began talking about the possibility of a Bond film. Later that year, Bryce introduced Fleming to a young Irish writer and director, Kevin McClory, and the three of them, together with Fleming and Cuneo, formed the partnership Xanadu Productions. All four worked up various outlines, treatments and scripts, under such titles as "SPECTRE", "James Bond of the Secret Service", and "Longitude 78 West". Memories of who contributed which elements vary, but Cuneo seems to have been responsible for ships with underwater trapdoors in their hulls and an underwater battle scene. Xanadu Productions never made the film, and in the event James Bond did not make his screen debut until Dr. No. Fleming recycled all the major elements of these abandoned film treatments for this novel. This immediately led to legal difficulties with Kevin McClory, who claimed part copyright, but Fleming's inscription to his American friend, with his cheerful acknowledgement of Cuneo's part in the book's creation, predates that unhappy episode. Fleming did not dedicate all of his James Bond books. Only five from the series of 13 Bond titles published during his lifetime have printed dedications. Of these five, only two are dedicated to single recipients: Goldfinger dedicated to William Plomer, and the current book. READ MORE Octavo. Original dark grey boards, spine lettered in gilt, skeletal hand motif blocked on the front cover in blind (Gilbert's A binding). With first issue dust jacket (priced 15s). Extremities bumped, some minor marks to fore edge, unclipped jacket nicked and rubbed with some minor loss, a very good copy in a like jacket. Gilbert A9a(1.1).

Thunderball is the ninth book in the James Bond series, and the eighth full-length James Bond novel, written by Ian Fleming. It is famous for introducing the criminal organization SPECTRE and the character Ernst Stavro Blofeld.