The Byron Preiss "authorized biography" is an odd duck. It has some idiosyncrasies. It's obviously not super revealing, yet it has weird pieces of information and features that make it important.
I remember when I first got it that it had some interesting pics, and the little boxes with lyrics to key songs were interesting.
I actually ended up first picking up the *second* edition of the book from 1983. That book takes the story up to some time in 1983 and has a pic on the back of the BBs at the White House in June of '83. It was apparently published (or prepped) prior to Dennis's death, as it doesn't mention that.
The first edition from 1979 or so features more of the weird illustrations/paintings of the group. I'm not exactly sure what they were going for. Anyway, the cover of that first version looks like this:
Based on a quick Google image search, it appears this version was released in both hard cover and soft cover versions.
The 1983 version has a different cover (utilizing one of the illustrations found on the inside of the '79 version):
So, which version to get? If you want all the weird illustrations, the '79 version is the one. But the '83 version does have a *small* amount of updated text filling in the gaps from 1979-1983. As I recall, it rushes through those years in about a page or two, covering KTSA, Carl's departure, Mike shaving his beard (yes, I have a weird specific recollection that the book goes out of its way to mark that momentous occasion in 1982), and maybe the Watt controversy.