The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks - 1977: first book of the Shannara series

First UK trade copy of the first Shannara book! Probably much more rare than the US edition. NOT ex-lib and NOT bc.

The Sword of Shannara (first book of the Shannara series) by Terry Brooks Hardcover First Edition - First Printing Random House US/Raven UK 1977 £6.95 cover price on the dust jacket. States "First Edition" on the copyright page underneath the number-line beginning with "2". (Note: This was Random House's convention for identifying first printings until circa 2000: "First Edition" with the printing number-line beginning with "2". Their printing number-lines never began with "1" until 2000. If the number-line begins with "2" but the indication of "First Edition" is lacking then it's a second printing.) I notice some near fine copies are priced at $1000+.

NOTE on edition: It appears that the book itself was printed by Random House in the US and Raven UK simply added their own dust jacket with a £6.95 cover price for distribution in the UK. The dust jacket front art is identical to the US edition. I've found other examples which have the same features. The books would later be reprinted by Orbit UK (probably the true first edition truly printed in the UK) in 1990.

Fine-in Fine Dust Jacket. An outstanding copy by most measures. The pages are for the most part clean, corners straight, minimal reading wear. The dust jacket is near-perfect, NO tears, NO creases, only a tiny hint of edge-wear to the bottom spine, which is to be expected, and a hint of dried glue, about 1/2" in length to the middle edge of the inside of the front paste-down, probably occurred during manufacturing. Still an outstanding copy of an uncommon first printing. Most copies were sent to libraries.

NOTE: There is a hint of waviness to the inner third of the first few pages, from about the half-title page to before the first page of main text. This appears to be common with many copies of the first printing by Random House. I saw some pictures of other copies, and many of them have the same problem, so it appears to be basically an outcome of manufacturing rather than mishandling.

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

ALSO: The picture is of the actual item for sale. (The picture is NOT a stock photo.)