The paperback edition of Splinter of the Mind's Eye was published on April 1, 1978 (the hardcover edition was released in March). Before Star Wars, later redubbed Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope, became a block buster, there was wide spread belief that the movie would not be a box office success. With this in mind, Star Wars creator George Lucas tasked novelist Alan Dean Foster, who ghost wrote the novelization of Star Wars From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, to come up with a book that could be used as the basis for a low budget sequel. To that end, the story took place almost entirely on one planet, starred only Luke, Leia, C3PO, and R2D2 (with Vader making a brief appearance at the end), and a limited cast in general. By the time the book came out, Star Wars was a massive hit breaking box office records so it did not become the basis for a sequel. It still became a best seller and joined the Marvel Comics series and newspaper strip series as the earliest form of the Star Wars Expanded Universe and the first book to fit that capacity. Besides reprints it was also adapted as an audiobook and a graphic novel (Terry Austin and Chris Sprouse). The original cover was done by Ralph McQuarrie, who was the famous Star Wars artist who formed most of the look of the Star Wars universe. ("Splinter of the Mind's Eye", Star Wars Book Event)
