Jaws First Edition Signed by Peter Benchley

First edition, early printing of Peter Benchley’s classic work, Jaws, signed by the author on the title page with a drawing of a shark’s head by the author, a very rare feature. A carefully looked after copy and it is in a remarkably good overall condition for a book that attained vintage status in 2024. When Benchley wrote Jaws in the early 1970s, he meticulously researched all available data about the behaviour of sharks that contributed to the emergence of the book as a classic in its genre. It is a finely crafted, superbly paced study of terror that is meant to terrify the reader with tingling imagery. It was made into a blockbuster motion picture, which was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Murray Hamilton and Lorraine Gary. It is the first film to gross £100 million at the box office. In 2001, Jaws was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Library, being deemed ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant’. Specific Details:- Publication Year: 1974 Publisher: Double Day & Company, Inc, Garden City, New York Condition: An extremely clean copy, not price-clipped and its price of $6.95 is on the top of the dust jacket flap. There are no inscriptions or previous owner markings. Text block: Near fine for age, shows minor signs of wear near the top and bottom of spine, there are no signs of foxing or markings or excessive age-toning; the top edge bears minor mark, other two edges are of devoid of blemishes. Covers: Clean except for a minor patch on the back cover that shows loss of colour. Dust jacket: Near fine for age, bright and vibrant, few minor patches of loss of the black colour, red pigmented letters show no loss of colour, a clear indication that this copy has not been exposed to light; there are no chips, dinks, tears or creases. Back of the dust jacket shows a photo of Peter Benchley by Alex Gotfryd. Our Comment:- Genuine item for a book collector, especially for a dedicated collector of modern fiction; it ranks as an alternative investment in the genre of books and has the potential for the creation of an antiquarian book with much appeal. An ideal gift for a recently-born grandchild.