Filed at 4:08 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Manuscripts by James Bond author Ian Fleming and Beat poet Jack Kerouac, along with a vintage 1960s Bunny costume highlight the ``Playboy at 50'' collection to be auctioned at Christie's, the auction house said on Wednesday.

Photography, memorabilia, art from contributors such as LeRoy Neiman, Alberto Vargas and Gahan Wilson and a custom Mercedes limousine that belonged to publisher and founder Hugh Hefner will be included in the Dec. 17 sale, held in conjunction with Playboy magazine's 50th anniversary.

Playboy Inc. Chairman and CEO Christie Hefner said the collection would commemorate the anniversary and ``introduce our heritage for a new generation of fans.''

Advanced proofs of sections from ``On Her Majesty's Secret Service,'' published in Playboy in 1963, with notations by the author, were estimated to fetch $18,000 to $24,000.

Other items to be auctioned include works by Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, Henry Miller, Vladimir Nabokov, Jean Paul Sartre and Hunter S. Thompson and letters from actress Joan Crawford.

``It will prove there were millions of men who did read it for the articles,'' joked Hefner about the magazine famed for bringing eroticism to a mainstream audience.

Photos of original Playboy cover girl Marilyn Monroe from 1960 also are included in the collection.