First Editions

A visitor to this website, Terry Zobeck, generously provided these cover images of his Alistair MacLean first editions. His collection covers both UK and U.S. editions. I have laid them out chronologically. (I apologize if this page takes a while to load; I wanted to include all covers at substantial sizes, which takes a lot of data.)

It's interesting to see how the covers are often quite similar but equally often bear little resemblance to each other. Early on, many more UK covers featured people, but that trend switched later. Some U.S. covers added brief descriptions of the books. Typography was sometimes the main difference (I especially like the "mod" lettering on the UK version of Circus). Seawitch shows the greatest contrast — would you be more enticed by an illustration of men aiming rifles beneath chattering helicopters, or by an image of a rusty barrel sitting in some water? Anyway, enjoy this collection!

hms ulysses
hms ulysses
the guns of navarone
the guns of navarone
south by java head
south by java head
the last frontier
the secret ways
night without end
night without end
fear is the key
fear is the key
the dark crusader
the dark crusader
the golden rendezvous
the golden rendezvous
the satan bug
the satan bug
ice station zebra
ice station zebra
when eight bells toll
when eight bells toll
where ealges dare
where ealges dare
force 10 from navarone
force 10 from navarone
puppet on a chain
puppet on a chain
caravan to vaccarès
caravan to vaccarès
bear island
bear island
the way to dusty death
the way to dusty death
breakheart pass
breakheart pass
circus
circus
the golden gate
the golden gate
seawitch
seawitch
goodbye california
goodbye california
athabasca
athabasca
river of death
river of death
partisans
partisans
floodgate
floodgate
san andreas
san andreas
the lonely sea
the lonely sea
santorini
santorini
knapp

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Go here for more facts about MacLean and about novels by other authors, based on plot summaries he wrote.


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