Herbert, Frank (1969) ‘Dune Messiah’, US signed first edition

Frank Herbert (1969) ‘Dune Messiah‘, US first edition, first printing, published by Putnam. Signed, inscribed and dated by the author on the front free endpaper: “For Jerry | 8/7/76 | Frank Herbert”. True first edition with no reprint statement on the copyright page, and brown boards as called for.

Condition: near fine in a near fine dust jacket. A little rubbing to the boards’ edges from sliding in and out the shelf. One small and neat previous owner’s name in blue ink on the top front pastedown. This is the inscribee’s name: Gerald Anderson. This could be erased but we recommend to leave it as part of the history of the book. Boards are clean and nice. No lettering rubbed out and vibrant. Internally clean. The dust jacket is NOT price clipped and a beauty. A trifle of edge rubbing. NO tape repairs, no restorations.

Dune Messiah is the second book in the seminal Dune trilogy. Dune (1965), the first book in the trilogy, 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 into film 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 (Salvador Dali; Orson Welles) and the most creative team of that time (film score by Pink Floyd; conceptual art by H.R Giger; Jean Giraud and Chris Foss) had been working on the project and it became ‘the most influential film that was never made’. A new film adaptation by Canadian director Dennis Villeneuve – who has made some outstanding science fiction fims in the past (‘Arrival’ and ‘Blade Runner 2049’) – has been released at the end of 2021 with the second Dune film slated to be released sometime in 2023. Villeneuve already indicated that the third intsllment would focus on Dune Messiah.