Jaws by Peter Benchley, First Edition with Dust Jacket, 1974

Benchley, Peter. Jaws. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1974. Stated First Edition. Octavo. In original black cloth boards with silver titles to the spine, original unclipped jacket with Jaws white lettering and shark on front, yellow titles to spine. 

Offered here is a first edition of Jaws by Peter Benchley. The book was published in 1974 by Doubleday & Company, Inc., in Garden City, New York. A stated first edition, this book has “044” in the gutter of Page 311. It is presented in its original black cloth boards with silver titles to the spine and original unclipped black dust jacket, with Jaws white lettering and iconic shark imagery on the front and yellow title on the spine. 

Jaws is a landmark novel that reshaped the modern thriller genre. Set in the fictional seaside town of Amity, the novel follows police chief Martin Brody as he confronts a series of deadly shark attacks. Benchley’s tightly paced narrative builds suspense by shifting perspectives from Brody, marine biologist Matt Hooper, and Quint, a seasoned fisherman drawn into the hunt. 

Jaws was Benchley’s debut novel. Doubleday formally commissioned him to write the book in 1971, while he was working as a freelance journalist. The story grew out of Benchley’s fascination with shark attacks, after reading about the exploits of Montauk fisherman Frank Mundus in 1964. Upon publication, Jaws was supported by an unusually aggressive and coordinated marketing campaign by Doubleday and paperback publisher Bantam Books, which placed the novel prominently in book club catalogues and generated substantial media attention. The strategy proved highly effective, with the hardcover edition remaining on the New York Times bestseller list for 44 weeks and the paperback selling millions of copies beginning in 1975.

Critical reviews, however, were mixed, celebrating Benchley’s pacing and ability to build suspense, while also debating the merits of his writing and character development. “Passages of hollow portentousness creep in, as do clattering allusions — perhaps inevitable — to the Great American fish felon, Moby Dick. But the shark is so menacingly adequate an embodiment of imagined malignity that, even though its attacks are telegraphed, they fix one's attention. In these scenes the novel's faults are forgotten.” (New York Times, Andrew C. J.bergman, Feb. 4, 1974). The Washington Post praised it as “a tightly written, tautly paced study of terror [that] makes us tingle." The novel’s popularity was further amplified when it was adapted into the 1975 film directed by Steven Spielberg, cementing Jaws as a defining cultural phenomenon of the 1970s. 

CONDITION:

Near fine. Octavo. Publisher’s black cloth with silver title on spine. Blue endpapers. Clean text. Inscription on free endpaper. Stated first edition with “044” in gutter of Page 311. 311pp.

Near fine jacket. Black jacket with Jaws white lettering on front and iconic shark imagery. Yellow title to spine. Photograph on back. $6.95 on jacket flap. Small green dot sticker on spine. Minor shelf wear to spine and corner. 

Book Dimensions: 8 ½” H x 5 ⅞” W x 1” D. 

Accompanied by our company's letter of authenticity.