"ANOTHER GALAXY, ANOTHER TIME": THE STAR WARS TRILOGY NOVELIZATIONS, EACH SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR

(FOSTER, Alan Dean) LUCAS, George. Star Wars. From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker. WITH: Star Wars. The Empire Strikes Back. WITH: Star Wars. Return of the Jedi. New York: Del Rey, (1976, 1980, 1983). Three volumes. Octavo, original gray, blue, and red boards, original dust jackets. $4500.

True first hardbound edition of the novelization of Star Wars, signed on the title page by ghostwriter Alan Dean Foster, together with book club editions of the novelizations of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, signed on the title pages by authors Donald F. Glut and James Kahn respectively.

Though credited to screenwriter and director George Lucas, veteran scifi author Alan Dean Foster wrote the novelization of Star Wars based on Lucas' script, for a flat fee of $5000. The following year Foster published his sequel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978), which Lucas commissioned for the purpose of being filmed as a low-budget sequel in the event that Star Wars did not do well at the box office. Needless to say, the movie's spectacular success led to the big-budget sequel The Empire Strikes Back, scripted by Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett and directed by Irvin Kershner; Lucas picked his USC classmate Donald F. Glut to pen the novelization. Doctor and writer James Kahn wrote the novelization of the movie Poltergeist, which led to several more novelizations: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Goonies, and—most famously—Return of the Jedi. Star Wars first hardbound edition, released for the Del Rey Science Fiction Book Club with gutter code S27; preceded only by the paperback edition published in December, 1976, well in advance of the May 1977 movie premiere, and followed by the first trade edition of the next year). Empire and Return both book club editions as well, stated on the dust jackets' front flaps, with gutter codes K29 and N31 respectively. Star Wars and Return with color stills from the movie productions.

Books generally clean and about-fine, with some light foxing to fore-edge of Return only; dust jackets with a few minor rubs, chiefly to spine ends or corners, generally quite clean and fresh. A near-fine signed set.