Book Review: 'The Art of Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope'

(C) 1979 Ballantine Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) 

In  November of 1979, Ballantine Books (then the sole licensed publisher of Star Wars novels and most of the literary tie-ins) published two versions of Carol Titleman’s The Art of Star Wars. One was a limited-edition hardcover, which I have never seen, the other was one of those "trade paperback" editions (coffee table size but in softcover).

What made The Art of Star Wars a must-get for me in those days was that it contained the entire fourth revised draft of the screenplay for A New Hope (it was the first time I had seen the Episode IV subtitle, even though I bought this after seeing The Empire Strikes Back). The screenplay included scenes that were later edited out of the final film (mainly scenes on Tatooine focusing a bit on Luke's life there and introducing Biggs Darklighter early in the film’s first act.

Another deleted scene – which was restored for the Special Edition 20 years later – introduced  Jabba the Hutt...he would have been very different in look and demeanor from the final Jabba, but at least he was there. These scenes appear both in the novelization and in the Radio Drama albeit in different formats and permutations.

The other attractive thing of this book was the amazing artwork. It ranges from pre-production paintings (most of them by the late Ralph McQuarrie), costume concepts by John Mollo, on-set and publicity photos, storyboards, and poster art. The book even has a section devoted to spinoff art and fan art, mostly drawn by small children.

The one flaw in the original 1979 edition of the book is not content related but the choice of paper and binding. The pages are glossy, like those of a yearbook...but the glue that holds the pages to the binding was not strong enough to hold the pages together. I went through two copies of the white-cover The Art of Star Wars edition when it was in print; I only leafed carefully through the last one once and the pages still came loose.

In 1994, Ballantine reissued Titleman’s book as The Art of Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope, with a new cover featuring a production painting by Ralph McQuarrie. Despite this, the book’s content was essentially the same as that of the 1979 edition’s.

A New Hope was part of the original title of the movie that became Star Wars, the ultimate movie entertainment experience of the 1970's that lives on as one of the most-loved movies of all time. The Art of Star Wars contains the complete script by George Lucas of the first movie, beautifully illustrated with the movie's fantastic works of art. In this unique compilation of all the imagination and beauty that went into the beginning of the film trilogy, the magic of Star Wars lives on.

I didn’t purchase that edition, but in 2003 I bought a copy of the 1997 reissue that tied in to the Special Edition re-release of George Lucas’s Star Wars Trilogy for the 20^th Anniversary of A New Hope.

The cover of the 1997 re-issue. Art by Ralph McQuarrie. (C) 1997 Ballantine Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) 

Reissued in January of 1997, The Art of Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope is divided – as it was in the first edition – into three sections. They are:

I: The Script

II: Poster Art

III: Spin-Off Cartoons and Fan Art

Additionally, there is a section at the end of the book with some production artwork created for the 1997 Special Edition re-release of A New Hope.

My Take

Since 1980, I’ve owned three copies – spanning two of the three editions – of The Art of Star Wars/The Art of Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope. Of those, I still have two; one is my second copy of the 1979 edition, while the other is the 1997 re-issue with the Special Edition section at the end.

As I said earlier, for me the main draw of The Art of Star Wars was the complete revised fourth draft of the screenplay by George Lucas. It includes the additional material written by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz to improve some of the scenes in earlier drafts, plus it is the version of the script in which Lucas decided to “kill” Obi-Wan Kenobi rather than just have him sitting in a corner of the Rebel command center during the Battle of Yavin.

Except for the Special Edition material added at the end of The Art of Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope and the book covers, the differences between the 1979 and 1997 editions are remarkably small. The 1997 edition has the film’s retconned title, of course, but the content of the three main sections is unchanged from The Art of Star Wars as published 18 years earlier. There are no post-1980 posters included in II: Poster Art, and no new editorial cartoons or spin-off art was added to the book’s third section.

As to why I own two copies: I originally bought my first copy of Carol Titleman’s The Art of Star Wars a few weeks before the 1979-1980 school year ended. I was still in junior high at the time but even then, I knew about proper book handling. I’d scrimped and saved to buy that book, and on the day I purchased it, I walked from my house to what was then called Midway Mall because Mom was out doing errands and I was too impatient to wait for her to come back so she could take me.

So, imagine my surprise when, after only one read-through of the book, the pages started coming off the binding. That wasn’t cool; the book had cost me $21.00 (including sales tax) and there weren’t a lot of copies of it left on the shelves at Waldenbooks.  And it wasn’t just one loose page. The binding shed pages like crazy; the glue simply didn’t adhere to the glossy paper pages. (Several years later, the same thing happened with my copy of The Art of Return of the Jedi.)

Eventually, I received a replacement copy from my former cousin-in-law Jorge Boshell in the late 1980s, but that one, too, sheds pages. I still have it somewhere; there’s a small tear on the front cover and there are a few loose pages, but it’s still in my collection.

My 1997 copy? I bought it in 2003 when Amazon still had it in stock. I have not read it in years, but it’s still in good shape.