Jaws

By Peter Benchley

First UK edition, first impression: London: André Deutsch, 1974.

Octavo. Original red cloth, the spine lettered in gilt, light pink endpapers. Dust jacket designed by Tom Simmonds, unclipped and priced £1.95 net, UK only.

A very good copy: a slight lean to the spine, with an area of light discolouration to the upper board. Previous owner's name and date to the front free endpaper. A very soft crease to the centre of the opening few leaves; the contents otherwise clean.

The original and unclipped dust jacket very good indeed: a little wear to the spine head with a small associated nick, and a soft crease to the lower flap, the panels otherwise bright and unrubbed.

Benchley's first novel, and the source of the film that invented the summer blockbuster. The jacket was printed before the picture was made and says so, noting that "the film rights have been sold for a huge sum to Zanuck Brown" — Steven Spielberg's Jaws followed in 1975, won Academy Awards for film editing, original dramatic score and sound, was nominated for best picture, and stood as the highest-grossing film in history until Star Wars two years later. Benchley was the son of the novelist Nathaniel Benchley and the grandson of the humorist Robert Benchley, and had been a reporter on the Washington Post, an associate editor of Newsweek and a speechwriter for President Johnson before this, his first novel and second book.