Spy Novels and The Private Library (Part I)

"Bond...James Bond...."

Is there a book collector or movie buff on the entire planet who does not recognize the fictional character associated with the above line?  Spy fiction is one of the most beloved of all genres upon which to construct a private library.  And the books needed to fill one's shelves with this genre can easily and inexpensively be acquired at yard sales, garage sales, friends-of-the-library book sales, publishers' clearance sales and the like.  Moreover, the paperback versions of such fiction offer a wealth of often...exotic...cover art which frequently is considered a collectible in its own right:

  

Spies can be found lurking in some of the world's oldest and most enduring literature, including Homer's Illiad, the Christian Bible, and Shakespeare's Henry V.   In the early decades of the 19th century James Fenimore Cooper penned The Spy (1821--about a spy for George Washington) and The Bravo (1831--set in Venice in the days of the doges):

 

But it is the publication of three novels shortly after the beginning of the 20th century to which the spy novel as we know it today traces its direct descent....