Ringworld by Larry Niven - 1977

Ringworld by Larry Niven First US Hardcover Edition - First Printing - First State Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1977. Orange boards with light red spine, original unclipped first state cover price of $8.95 intact on the front dust jacket flap (many copies were modified to reflect a price change to $9.95). Dust jacket artwork by Rick Sternbach, one of the best trade edition covers of a science fiction novel in a hardcover edition prior to 1980. Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel in 1971.

Fine in Fine- Dust Jacket. Beautiful copy, the book itself appears brand new, and UNREAD, the dust jacket is just about fine, only a slight hint of edge-wear to the top spine, some age-toning to the flaps (very common with books published in the 1970's), and tiny nicks to upper and lower front corners, else very bright and clean. Uncommon in the first state dust jacket!

Note on edition: The true first edition of this book was a Ballantine paperback original published in 1970 followed by the first hardcover edition published in the UK by Gollancz. While the Gollancz edition is technically the "true first hardcover edition" and can run as much as $2500, it's not a terribly good edition. It's a rather small book without dust jacket artwork. Purist collectors will tell you it doesn't matter the quality, it's the true first hardcover edition. I contest that this offering by Holt, Rinehart and Winston published only a few years later is the best and should be the most desirable edition of Ringworld. The book is a nice solid octavo size with beautiful dust jacket artwork by Rick Sternbach. Still, it currently runs only a fraction of the Gollancz edition.

NOTE: All modern books with dust jackets come with dust jacket covers.

ALSO: The pictures are of the actual item for sale. (The pictures are NOT stock photos.)