Herbert, Frank (1965) ‘Dune’, US signed first edition

Frank Herbert (1965) ‘Dune‘, US first edition, firt printing, published by Chilton Company. Signed by author Frank Herbert without personalisation on the title page.

Condition: a near fine copy in a very good first state dust jacket. There are no previous owner’s scribbles inside the book, no bookplates, no stamps of any sorts. The lettering on the spine is vibrant and not rubbed out. The original blue cloth boards are vibrant in colour and clean throughout. Very minimal shelf wear, but the book is probably unread. No foxing. The dust jacket is the correct first state specimen with teh correct USD 5.95 price and the four line Chilton address on the bottom of the rear flap as called for. Not colour faded on the spine. Slight edge wear as shown including small chipping to edges. A beautiful copy.

The publication history of ‘Dune’ has become legend. After researching sand dunes in Oregon Herbert conceived the idea to write the story. The novel was serialised in ANALOG magazine from Decmber 1963 onwards as ‘Dune World’ and ‘Prophet of Dune’. After 23 rejections by established publishers, Chilton Company, a car repair manual printing company, published the novel in October 1965. The print run was very low and about half of the initial run had to be discarded. Very few copies have survived in decent condition.

Dune remains the best science fiction novel of all time. It won the 1966 Hugo and Nebula Award. It has been described as the science fiction equivalent to Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ in fantasy in the book’s scope, depth, complexity and quality of writing. It has had a colossal influence on the sci-fi genre in literature and film. For exmaple, without ‘Dune’ ‘Star Wars’ would not have been made. ‘Dune’ has been adaped by David Lynch in 1984, and as a TV-mini series in 2000. An earlier attempt to film the source material by Alejandro Jodorowsky in the 1970s failed due to lack of finances. A star cast and the most creative team of that time had been working on the project and it bacame ‘the most influential film that was never made’. A new film adaptation is in the works by Canadian director Dennis Villeneuve who has made some outstanding science fiction fims in the past (‘Arrival’ and ‘Blade Runner 2049’), and so the hope remains that the new ‘Dune’ will live up to the quality of its source material.