Are Star Wars books true literature?

Answer 1

Wookieepedia has a pretty long explanation of this, but here is a condensed answer:

Lucas Licensing, the company owned by George Lucas that handles Star Wars merchandise, including the books, says that all books are canon, except for a few special cases, chiefly the Star Wars Infinities comic book series. That series is not canon. If, however, there are contradictions between the books and the movies, they say that whatever is in the movie is canon, and whatever contradiction is in the book is not canon.

George Lucas himself doesn't consider the books, or anything outside of the films, part of the Star Wars story. He once said, "The Star Wars story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader. That is the story. Once Vader dies, he doesn't come back to life, the Emperor doesn't get cloned and Luke doesn't get married." He does, however, have a few rules that Star Wars authors have to follow. On very few occasions he has influenced the stories of certain books personally. He ordered changes made to the plot of the Dark Empire comic series (the one where the Emperor gets cloned), and he ordered that the major character to have been killed off in Star by Star be changed to a different character. Otherwise, he claims not to have even read any of the books.

Leland Chee, who works for Lucas Licensing, has said that while the company operates as though all the extra material is canon, it is up to individual fans to decide for themselves what is part of Star Wars and what is not. Leland Chee also maintains something called the Holocron Database, which is basically Lucas Licensing's official list of what is canon, though it is not available to the public.

Answer 2

No, the movies came first. However, the first novelization of A New Hope was released WHILE the movie was being filmed, and was based completely on the screenplay.

Answer 3

yes actually there are more than one there are kids beginner books and a couple chapter books

Answer 4

No they are Science Fiction.