[New York]: A Signet Book Published by The New American Library, [1968]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First paperback edition. Signet Q3580. Photoplay edition with 16 pages of stills inserted. Novelization of the film which was based in part on the short story "The Sentinel." This paperback edition was released right on the heels of the hardcover edition, the hardcover had a June release date and the paperback published in July. [Reference: Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-254. Survey of Science Fiction Literature V, pp. 2343-9].

Berlin: August Scherl G.m.b.H., [1926]. Octavo, 3 volumes, each volume containing four inserted plates with eight film stills (all the same), original pictorial wrappers. First, second and third printings of the German photoplay edition. The first three printings of the German photoplay edition. The first printing has the Willy Reimann illustration of Metropolis (depicting a futuristic megalopolis). The second and third printings use the now iconic Werner Graul illustration. The books are accompanied by a card inscribed and signed by director Fritz Lang: "Greetings / from / METROPOLIS / Fritz Lang" and the rare German advertising herald for the film (we have seen only one other copy offered for sale). METROPOLIS is a novelization of the screenplay written by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou of the 1926 UFA film. "Though often described as the first SF epic of the cinema, this famous German film -- of which no complete version now exists -- has just as much in common with the cinema of the Gothic. Though set in a future visually emphasized by towering buildings and vast brooding machines, the city of Metropolis has an underworld dark and medieval in atmosphere ... The story of METROPOLIS is trite and its politics ludicrously simplistic; but these flaws cannot detract from the sheer visual power of the film -- a combination of the high Expressionistic sets (the work of art directors Otto Hunte, Erich Kettelhut and Karl Vollbrecht) and Lang's direction ... METROPOLIS, which was extremely expensive and not a financial success, almost bankrupted the studio that made it (UFA). The film was cut almost as soon as it was released, and -- still in the 1920s -- shortened yet more radically in the UK and USA. Even recently restored archival versions are half an hour shorter than the original." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 804-5. The dark dystopian vision of the future city continues influence film today in such examples as BLADE RUNNER and DARK CITY. [Reference: Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 3-23; (1981) 2-112; (1987) 2-123 and (1995) 2-132. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1040. Fisher, Fantasy and Politics: Visions of the Future in the Weimar Republic, pp. 126-37; 139-42. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 198. Survey of Science Fiction Literature III, pp. 1383-86. Bloch (2002) 1370. Nagl, p. 256].

New York: A Del Rey Book/Ballantine Books, [1977]. Octavo, cover art by John Berkey, boards. First hardcover edition. Issued by the Science Fiction Book Club (precedes the trade hardcover issued later in the year). Novelization of the feature film directed by George Lucas. With still photos from the motion picture.

New York: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, n.d., [1926]. Octavo, pp. [1-6] [1-2] 3-418 [419-426: ads], four inserted plates from the film, original light blue cloth stamped in black. Later edition. Issued to coincide with the 1926 Paramount film production starring Ronald Coleman. Includes a 6-page afterword by Glendon Allvine about the making of the Paramount film in the Arizona desert.