This article was first published in the Summer 1997 issue of The Ian Fleming Foundation's Goldeneye magazine, pp. 34–35. The text is reprinted here as it originally appeared, with only minor typographical changes.

“What Happened to Page 50?”: How Ian Fleming's ‘Live and Let Die’ Only Lived Twice

Alterations to Ian Fleming's ‘Live and Let Die’

Listing compiled by Bryan Krofchok

The following list details the major differences between the British Cape and American Macmillan editions of Ian Fleming's Live and Let Die.

Although the British Cape edition largely agrees with Fleming's original typescript, deviations are noted as appropriate.

Chapter 1
Unlike its British counterpart, the American edition does not rate the St. Regis, where Bond stays while in New York, as the “best hotel” in the city. Such a claim is also absent in Fleming's typescript.
In the American edition, Bond's room at the St. Regis is no longer number 2100, on the twenty-first and top floor, as in the British edition, but number 2000. It's still on the top floor, however, which is now said to be the twentieth. (In his typescript, Fleming had originally toyed with the idea of placing Bond on the thirteenth floor, room 1325.)
The suspicious black sedan that Bond spies outside the hotel is a Chevrolet in the British, a Cadillac in the American.
A footnote referring to Fleming's previous book, Casino Royale, is missing in the American edition.
Captain Dexter, of the C.I.A., looks upon Bond and Leiter's joyous reunion “with distaste” in the American edition, instead of “without enthusiasm.”
A line in the British edition dubs Bond and Leiter's meal of soft-shell crabs and hamburgers at the hotel as “American cooking at its rare best.” The American edition, not surprisingly, omits the word “rare.”
Chapter 2
In the American edition, M. does not specifically tell Bond to “sit down” when he first enters the office.
A comment made by Bond in the British edition referring to the blacks, “Pretty law-abiding chaps, on the whole, I should have thought, except when they've drunk too much,” is revised in the American edition to read, “Pretty law-abiding chaps, I should have thought.” (Fleming's typescript does not include either comment.)
Chapter 3
In the British edition, Leiter reminds Bond that he should always remember to say “‘cab’ instead of ‘taxi’” while in America. This is replaced in the American edition with a reminder to say “‘laff’ rather than ‘larf.’”
The shower that Bond takes is upgraded in the American edition to “stinging,” instead of the British edition's merely “sizzling.”
In the American edition, Bond's comma of black hair is not specifically said to rest over his “right” eyebrow.
Chapter 4
The morning walk that Bond takes around New York City fails to note that he was on Broadway in the American edition, but it does mention Fifth Avenue.
The slogan of the Glorifried Ham-N-Eggs restaurant (itself spelled “Gloryfried,” and called “an eating house” in the British edition) reads “The Eggs We Serve Tomorrow Are Still on the Farm Today” in the American, and “The Eggs We Serve Tomorrow Are Still in the Hens” in the British. (Fleming merely went with “The Eggs We Serve Tomorrow Are Still on the Farm” in his original typescript.)
Binswanger's comment in the British edition, regarding the case against Mr. Big, that “the Commissioner sure don't like having this bastard crappin' away on his own front doorstep while Mr. Hoover sits down in Washington well to leeward to the stink,” instead reads “the Commissioner is getting damn' fed up” in the American edition.
Leiter's warning to Bond in the British edition that Harlem is “a bit of a jungle” is downgraded to the place being a “little rough” in the American, and no longer includes the note that one is often tossed out of places there “simply because you're white.”
Leiter's comments in the British edition, of “I like the Negroes and they know it somehow. I used to be a bit of an aficionado of Harlem” and “So I know my way about up there. And I admire the way they're getting on in the world, though God knows I can't see the end of it,” instead respectively read “I like Negroes” and “I know my way around Harlem pretty well” in the American edition.
Chapter 5
The British edition's chapter title of “Nigger Heaven” has been changed to “Seventh Avenue” in the American edition. (Fleming did not include any chapter titles in his original typescript.)
Two-and-a-half pages, in which Bond overhears a conversation between a black man and his date at Sugar Ray's club, are not to be found in the American edition.
No mention is made in the American edition that Mr. Big's clubs in Harlem do not open until midnight.
Chapter 6
According to the British edition, while at the Boneyard (one of Mr. Big's clubs) Bond and Leiter dine on chicken sandwiches. To the contrary, and for some unknown reason, the American edition says that they dine on ham sandwiches.
In the British edition, during G-G Sumatra's striptease at The Boneyard, Bond hears “the audience panting and grunting like pigs at the trough.” In the American edition, however, he only senses “the electric tension in the room.”
Chapter 7
The keyhole that serves as an outlet for a gun hidden away in Mr. Big's desk grows from a mere “.45” centimeters in diameter in the British edition, to a phenomenal “forty-five” centimeters in the American. (Admittedly, this one is a bit picky. The proofreader was probably about to head off to lunch or something, but it is humorous nonetheless.)
Chapter 9
Leiter mentions only the possibility of “the British Ambassador being hauled out of bed” in the American edition, if a false account of Bond's meeting with Mr. Big — which left three of his henchmen dead, including Tee Hee — reaches the press. The idea of “parades by the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People,” as noted in the British edition, is missing.
Chapter 10
A line in the description of the underground train station is missing from the American edition: “Up front, the auxiliary generators of the 4000 horsepower twin Diesel electric units ticked busily.” (Fleming's original typescript contains a slightly different line, which omits the 4000 horsepower figure.)
The colors of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (known only as the Seaboard Railroad in the British edition) are “green, red, and yellow” in the American edition, instead of the “purple and gold” found in the British edition.
It is noted that The Silver Phantom — in addition to Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington — also stops at Wilmington in the American edition.
In the American edition, Baldwin, the Pullman porter of Car 245, is not explicitly described as being black when Bond first encounters him.
A comment made by Solitaire to Bond aboard the train, “I've been shut up with him and his Nigger gangsters for nearly a year. This is heaven,” is absent in the American edition.
When Solitaire gestures toward the bathroom door and remarks that she “must look terrible” after rushing to meet Bond aboard the train, Bond laughingly replies, “Go ahead, darling” in the British edition. In the American edition he simply says, “You don't.”
The houses passed on the train en route to Trenton are not noted in the American edition as being the “pretty clapboard” variety.
In a listing of the empty freight cars passing by, those that only bore the name “Lackawana” in the British edition now bear the fuller “Delaware, Lackawana & Western” in the American edition.
Chapter 11
The maker of Solitaire's ‘Vent Vert’ perfume is Balmain in the British edition, Dior in the American. (Fleming omitted a reference to the perfume's maker entirely in his typescript.)
Chapter 12
Solitaire's comments regarding scam artists preying on the “little man” in Florida are notably toned down in the American edition. The rather harsh, “Serves him right, of course. He goes there to die. He can't take it with him” found in the British edition instead reads, “It seems such a shame. Poor man, he goes there to die” in the American. (Her comments in Fleming's original typescript are even a bit more extreme.)
Chapter 13
“Just shows how much one can push a democracy around, what with habeas corpus and human rights and all the rest,” Bond's comment after learning the details of the explosion meant for him aboard the train and Mr. Big's far reaching power, is missing in the American edition.
Binswanger, a lieutenant in New York's homicide department, is not referred to in the American edition as a “blockhead” by Leiter.
After being chided by Leiter that he uses his ears more for collecting lipstick than for hearing, and subsequently scrubbing them furiously with a handkerchief, Bond laughingly replies to Leiter in the British edition: “If you find yourself dead in your bed tonight, you'll know who did it.” The comment, no longer foreshadowing Leiter's impending fate, is replaced in the American edition with a note that Leiter merely “ducked under Bond's swing and they both burst out laughing.”
Chapter 14
Another shower! While in Florida, the British edition notes that Bond “quickly took a shower, holding his eyes open into the needles of water until they smarted.” The American edition says that Bond “took a quick shower, running it very hot at first, then very cold.”
Chapter 17
More missing text! This time it's a reflection by Bond while in Jamaica on Mr. Big's power, and his subsequent dream, that have been removed from the American edition:

. . . He guessed that somehow the forces of the sea had been harnessed to do The Big Man's work for him and it was on these that he concentrated, on murder by shark and barracuda, perhaps by manta ray and octopus.

The facts set out by the naturalists were chilling and awe-inspiring, but the experiences of Cousteau in the Mediterranean and of Hass in the Red Sea and Caribbean were more encouraging.

That night Bond's dreams were full of terrifying encounters with giant squids and sting rays, hammerheads and the saw-teeth of barracuda, so that he whimpered and sweated in his sleep.

After Quarrel reassures Bond that he won't see any more barracudas, the paragraph following in the American edition reads, “‘I hope not,’ said Bond, thinking of Leiter.” In the British edition Bond says, “I hope not, I haven't got a face to spare.” (Differing from both of these, Fleming's original typescript has Bond saying, “I hope not, I need some face.” Also, in light of the way in which the line has been altered in the American edition, it should be noted that in Fleming's draft, Leiter originally perished as a result of the shark attack.)
Chapter 18
A sentence noting that Bond “could not imagine that he would encounter such dangerous conditions in his underwater swim to the island” is missing in the American edition. (Additionally, Bond refers to his destination as the “Isle of Surprise” in Fleming's original typescript.)
Bond's commando dagger is said to have been designed by “Wilkinson” in the American edition, instead of “Wilkinsons” (with the spelling in the American edition being the correct one). See Richard Chopping's jacket artwork for The Spy Who Loved Me for the corrected spelling.
Chapter 21
When Bond is finally reunited as a result of his capture with a tearful Solitaire, the British edition notes: “He picked her up and held her at arm's length. It hurt his left arm,” and that “She looked thin.” The American edition only says, “He held her at arm's length and looked at her” and “She looked at him” (emphasis added).
A book mentioned by Mr. Big — Instincts of the Herd in War and Peace — in the British edition, is correctly listed as Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War in the American.
Chapter 22
After the Secatur explodes, the British edition provides the following lovely description: “Half of The Big Man's left arm came out of the water. It had no hand, no wrist, no wrist watch.” The American edition deletes the bit about the watch.