The 1984 book, The Dune Encyclopedia is edited by Dr. Willis E. McNelly. The details that are found in this book aren’t found anywhere else. If you have $1000 bucks lying around, you can buy this ultra-rare book. The book has been long out of print and is not only a source of enigmatic Dune knowledge but also Dune Apocrypha.
Fans argue over whether the book, jotted down as an in-universe reference text, summarizes the entire Dune canon. Here, we’ve described why the book is so rare and why it’s still in controversy, 37 years after it was first published and brought out into the world. There are mild spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk!
Explained: The Dune Encyclopedia
The famous Dune Encyclopedia is a “fictional non-fiction” reference book that is claimed to be edited by someone named Hadi Benotto, in the year 15540 AG (AG stands for “After Guild”).
In reality, the book was assembled by an academician and fan of Dune, Willis E. McNelly. With the other vaguely credited contributors (there’s also a very cryptic bibliography at the back of the book), Willis’ The Dune is what fanfiction would appear like as a textbook.
As the book was published in 1984, which was one year before Chapterhouse: Dune, the last Dune novel that Herbert ever wrote was released, it doesn’t have any information from that novel.
Is The Dune Encyclopedia Canon?
Although Herbert was okay with The Dune Encyclopedia when he was alive, his estate was completely against it after he died in 1986. By 2000, the book was running out of print, and reprinting it was deemed to be a not-for-profit rivalry. McNelly himself alleged that he didn’t seek to profit from reprinting the book.
Physical Copies Of The Encyclopedia Are Quite Hard To Find
The Encyclopedia was published by Berkley Books in both hardcover and paperback in 1984. It was never reprinted, but sometimes, you can find full PDFs circulating online. You can buy used copies on eBay, ABE, or other shopping apps. The prices range from $1,000 on the high end to $499.99 for more worn-out copies.
A rare science fiction book states that The Dune Encyclopedia is one of the oldest, maybe because it’s rarer and harder to find than most versions of books that are written by Herbert.
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The Book Has One Outrageous Fan Theory
Because The Dune was submitted as a work of scholarly research, assembled by historians looking back at the galaxy’s history, intentional paradoxes exist between some of the entries.
A fan theory, screens as a fictional academic trying to reform the story of Dune. In one of the entries on Paul Atreides, a historian suggests there’s no way that Paul Atreides could have been from Canada. Instead, the writer asserts, he was a Fremen, and that his biographers have magnified the legends of Paul coming from a different planet to Arrakis.
Still, The Dune Encyclopedia is an incredible resource, and the majority of the information included within it is accurate.
It’s a very helpful book if you’re enthusiastic about reading quick character biographies or getting your questions answered about the Dune universe’s places, technology, and culture.
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