A long time ago, Star Wars changed the world.

For some, it began not with the release of the movie in 1977, but with the November, 1976 publication of the Star Wars novelization.

Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, bore George Lucas’ name, but was ghostwritten by the now prolific science fiction (and novelization) author, Alan Dean Foster.

You might think that the novelization wasn’t on the popular radar until after the movie’s release. But the book made its own mark. While George Lucas has referred to initial sales as “modest” prior to the film’s release, the first print run of the novelization sold out three months before audiences ever saw the film.

It only skyrocketed after the film’s release. My own May 1978 printing (pictured in header) is the twentieth edition, proclaiming on the cover “over five million in print.” I even remember my Dad, in his post-movie excitement, commenting that there was a book before the movie, wondering if there were more in the series.

There certainly would be. In a way it’s ironic. The literary Star Wars, which would come to be called the “expanded universe,” began before the movie ever premiered. Then, when the original trilogy was done, this expanded universe (EU) kept Star Wars alive for more than a decade when there were no films in the theater, and when home video was far from ubiquitous. Ultimately, the EU took on a life of its own, as precious and essential to many fans as the films themselves.

The popularity of that original 1976 novel speaks to the power of Lucas’ story. The book only gave us words on a page to convey his vision of the galaxy far, far away. No visuals. No music. Only the story of Luke Skywalker and its impact on our imagination. Even today, perhaps especially today, the purity of that original storytelling, created in a time when it was the only Star Wars that existed, makes the book a fascinating read.

Of note is that the backstory presented in the novel feels both well developed and familiar. In the prologue, we are essentially told the story of the prequel films that wouldn’t even exist for over two decades:

ANOTHER galaxy, another time.

The Old Republic was the Republic of legend, greater than distance or time. No need to note where it was or whence it came, only to know that… it was the Republic.

Once, under the wise rule of the Senate and the protection of the Jedi Knights, the Republic throve and grew. But as often happens when wealth and power pass beyond the admirable and attain the awesome, there appear those evil ones who have greed to match.

So it was with the Republic at its height. Like the greatest of trees, able to withstand any external attack, the Republic rotted from within though the danger was not visible from outside.

Aided and abetted by restless, power-hungry individuals within the government, and the massive organs of commerce, the ambitious Senator Palpatine caused himself to be elected President of the Republic. He promised to reunite the disaffected among the people and to restore the remembered glory of the Republic.

Once secure in office he declared himself Emperor, shutting himself away from the populace. Soon he was controlled by the very assistants and boot-lickers he had appointed to high office, and the cries of the people for justice did not reach his ears.

Having exterminated through treachery and deception the Jedi Knights, guardians of justice in the galaxy, the Imperial governors and bureaucrats prepared to institute a reign of terror among the disheartened worlds of the galaxy. Many used the imperial forces and the name of the increasingly isolated Emperor to further their own personal ambitions.

But a small number of systems rebelled at these new outrages. Declaring themselves opposed to the New Order they began the great battle to restore the Old Republic.

From the beginning they were vastly outnumbered by the systems held in thrall by the Emperor. In those first dark days it seemed certain the bright flame of resistance would be extinguished before it could cast the light of new truth across a galaxy of oppressed and beaten peoples…

There are differences, most notably the character of Palpatine as a figurehead rather than a mastermind. But when you read the novel today it seems clear that Lucas had the 30,000 foot view of his saga pretty well figured out.

What he could never had predicted was what would happen after Star Wars, the film, was released. The Star Wars novel didn’t change the publishing world in the same way that the movie would change Hollywood. It didn’t create the novelization genre, and it wasn’t the first expanded universe to a franchise property. But it started a literary Star Wars series that came to define both of those things.

In the 1990s and 2000s, the Star Wars section of book stores would be big enough to represent a genre unto itself. Other than the Star Trek literary universe, no other adapted series could even pretend to compete with the Star Wars EU. When Disney bought Star Wars and pulled the plug in favor of its own publishing continuity, the EU was more than 225 novels strong, with more than 125 million copies of Star Wars books in print in 2013, according to the Wall Street Journal (paywall). Since 1976, the original novelization has had more than 60 reprints in the United States, according to starwars.com. It remains one of the few EU novels still relevant to Disney’s rebooted literary “canon.”

Of course the novel could never have had the same presence absent the success of the film. But to discount the impact of the book that started it all would be to misunderstand history. As to the state of the Star Wars in 1976, the novel’s release date of November 12, 1976 isn’t just an interesting trivia factoid. It’s the birth date of Star Wars.