The London "Telegraph" on October 23 reported on four letters written by Ian Fleming that will be auctioned next month at Christie's in London. The letters reveal that the true identity of the character Moneypenny in the Bond films was inspired by an actual friend of Fleming - Loelia Ponsonby, wife of the 2nd Duke of Westminster. According to the article, Fleming's flirtatious and joking assertions of love in the letters are very similar to Bond's humorous exchanges with secretary Moneypenny in the celebrated films. The letters seem to have been written to Ponsonby at the time she was separated from her first husband and before she married her second. The article asserts the letters will probably be sold for up to 3500 pounds sterling. Interestingly, I know something about the real James Bond, or at least the man whose name inspired Fleming to give his spy his memorable moniker. In 1988 I met Mary Fanning Wickham Bond, novelist, poet, memoirist, and second wife of James Bond, the well-known Philadelphia ornithologist. She had written many books, the best selling of which was "Device and Desire, a Novel of Bad Manners" published by Lippincott in 1949. She also wrote "To James Bond with Love", published in 1980 by Sutter House. And in 1988 I worked with her as she put the final editorial touches on "Ninety Years at Home in Philadelphia", published by Dorrance Publishing. I visited her in her home in Chestnut Hill where she entertained me with wonderful stories about the fascinating life she and her husband had lived and about their relationship with Fleming. They met him in the Bahamas where Bond liked to go bird watching. Once after the novels had been published, they dropped in on Fleming at his home unannounced. He was apparently afraid they planned to sue him for using Bond's name, but they were just there to visit. As they left, Fleming autographed and handed them a copy of "You Only Live Twice". The inscription read: "To the real James Bond, from the Thief of his identity." As Paul Harvey might say, "And that's the rest of the story."