8vo. Original black cloth lettered in silver on spine (spine slightly leaned); publisher’s unclipped dust jacket (a few creases to extremities, a few tiny chips, cellotape on front panel). Provenance: Madeline Weigel (signature on half-title).

FIRST EDITION, with code "044" on p.311. IN THE FIRST JACKET with "$6.95 price" and "J" on inner front flap. SIGNED BY BENCHLEY on half-title: “Peter Benchley 1/29/74.”

Benchley’s novel developed from his interest in shark attacks after he learned about the exploits of Montauk, New York fisherman Frank Mundus, who was a shark hunter in his early life.  Film producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown bought the film rights before the novel was published.  The film Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg and released in June 1975, was a summer blockbuster, becoming the highest-grossing movie in history to that time, proclaiming to audiences: “you’re gonna need a bigger boat.”