Jon Gilbert | First Editions

1972

Jon Gilbert (born 1972) is an English bibliophile, historian and the official bibliographer of Ian Fleming, creator of the fictional character James Bond, as well as an authority on J. K. Rowling first editions. He is a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Asssociation, the Ian Fleming Foundation, and  Crime Writers' Association (CWA).

He was educated at Caterham School and Roehampton Institute London. According to Fleming-family publisher Queen Anne Press, Gilbert is perhaps the foremost expert on the works of Ian Fleming and the literary history of James Bond. Ian Fleming: The Bibliography, which was published in October 2012, is the result of both a career immersed in the writings of Ian Fleming, and four years intensive research following Fleming’s centenary year in 2008. The book was the winner of the 16th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography, awarded in 2014.

Gilbert has appeared on radio and television discussing his subject, and in various Bond-related publications including 007 Magazine, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and MI6 Confidential. In May 2017, Gilbert gave the lecture Ian Fleming: The Author as Collector at the University of London. In July 2021, Gilbert moderated the specialist webinar 007: The Transatlantic Appeal of James Bond.

In 2022, together with Peter Harrington, Gilbert acquired the significant Ian Fleming archive of manuscript collector Martin Schøyen, for which he had written the catalogue (2020).