star wars - How did people know Emperor Palpatine's name before the release of Prequel Trilogy?

As far as I can remember (and I can't find anything on the internet to refute this), the name "Palpatine" is never used in the original Star Wars trilogy (he's just called "the Emperor"). Despite this, I remember knowing that the Emperor's name was Palpatine long before the release of Episode I, where the name is used. My question is, how did I know Palpatine's name? Was it in the original trilogy somewhere after all? Was the name common knowledge? Any sense of what the original source was?

Answer

His name was mentioned in :

Alan Dean Foster's ANH novelization in 1976:

Aided and abetted by restless, power-hungry individuals within the government, and the massive organs of commerce, the ambitious Senator Palpatine caused himself to be elected President of the Republic. He promised to reunite the disaffected among the people and to restore the remembered glory of the Republic. Once secure in office he declared himself Emperor, shutting himself away from the populace. Soon he was controlled by the very assistants and boot-lickers he had appointed to high office, and the cries of the people for justice did not reach his ears (George Lucas [Alan Dean Foster], Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker (paperback; New York: Del Rey, 1976), p. 1, ISBN 0-345-26079-1.)

the 1983 novelization for Return of the Jedi by James Kahn:

The Emperor sat, regarding this view, as Vader approached from behind. The Lord of the Sith kneeled and waited. The Emperor let him wait. He perused the vista before him with a sense of glory beyond all reckoning: this was all his. And more glorious still, all his by his own hand.

For it wasn't always so. Back in the days when he was merely Senator Palpatine, the galaxy had been a Republic of stars, cared for and protected by the Jedi Knighthood that had watched over it for centuries. But inevitably it had grown too large - too massive a bureaucracy had been required, over too many years, in order to maintain the Republic. Corruption had set in.

It was also mentioned in 1998 Star Wars Visual Dictionary as per Wookiepedia, but I can't find a cite.

Comments

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