James Bond (January 4, 1900 – February 14, 1989) was a leading American ornithologist, an expert on the birds of the Caribbean.

His name was appropriated by writer Ian Fleming for his fictional spy, James Bond.

Biography

Bond was born in Philadelphia on January 4, 1900. His interest in natural history was spurred by an expedition his father, Francis E. Bond, undertook in 1911 to the Orinoco Delta. Bond was originally educated at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, but after the death of his mother he moved with his father to England in 1914. There he studied at Harrow and later Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained a B.A. in 1922 and was the sole American member of the Pitt Club.[1] After graduating he moved back to the United States and worked for a banking firm for three years in Philadelphia. An interest in natural history prompted him to quit and accept a place on an expedition to the Amazon run by the Academy of Natural Sciences. Subsequently he worked as an ornithologist at the Academy of Natural Sciences in that city, rising to become curator of ornithology there.[3]He was an expert in Caribbean birds and wrote the definitive book on the subject: Birds of the West Indies, first published in 1936.

Bond won the Institute of Jamaica's Musgrave Medal in 1952; the Brewster Medal of the American Ornithologists' Union in 1954; and the Leidy Medal of the Academy of Natural Sciencesin 1975. He died in the Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia at age 89. He is interred in the church yard at Church of the Messiah in Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania.

Fictional namesake

Ian Fleming, who was a keen bird watcher living in Jamaica, was familiar with Bond's book, and chose the name of its author for the hero of Casino Royale in 1953, apparently because he wanted a name that sounded "as ordinary as possible". Fleming wrote to the real Bond's wife, "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born."

He also contacted the real James Bond about using his name in the books, and Bond replied to him, "Fine with it." At some point during one of Fleming's visits to Jamaica he met with the real Bond and his wife as shown in a made-for-DVD documentary about Fleming. A short clip was shown with Fleming, Bond and his wife. Also in his novel Dr. No Fleming referenced Bond's work by basing a large ornithological sanctuary on Dr. No's island in the Bahamas. In 1964, Fleming gave Bond a first edition copy of You Only Live Twice signed, "To the real James Bond, from the thief of his identity". In December 2008 the book was put up for auction, eventually fetching $84,000 (£56,000).

In the 2002 Bond film Die Another Day, the fictional Bond, played by Pierce Brosnan, can be seen examining Birds of the West Indies in an early scene that takes place in Havana, Cuba. The author's name (James Bond) on the front cover is obscured. In the same film, when Bond first meets Jinx (Halle Berry), he introduces himself as an ornithologist.

In the ITV Miss Marple murder mystery, A Caribbean Mystery, broadcast on 16 June 2013, Miss Marple meets Ian Fleming at a talk on "Birds of the West Indies", given by James Bond. Before the talk begins, Fleming tells Miss Marple that he's working on a new book, but trying to come up with a name for the character. When the speaker introduced himself, Fleming has a moment of inspiration and reaches for his notebook. The talk by James Bond the ornithologist is on guano which figures in the background and plot of the James Bond spy novel Dr. No.