(CNN)Everybody on the planet knows that Gene Roddenberry created Mr. Spock, the laconic, imperturbable extra-terrestrial First Officer for the Starship Enterprise. 

But Mr. Spock doesn't belong to Roddenberry, even though he is the grand exalted progenitor of everything that was, is, and forever will be "Star Trek." 

Mr. Spock belongs to Leonard Nimoy, who died Friday at age 83. And though he doesn't take Spock with him, he and Spock remain inseparable. 

Zachary Quinto, who plays Spock in the re-booted feature film incarnation of "Trek," is excellent in the role. (Nimoy himself said so.) Quinto must know that however much he brings to the role, he will only be its custodian. Spock is Nimoy. Nimoy is Spock. It is, as Spock himself would intone, only logical. 

Nimoy often insisted otherwise, especially as the show went from canceled outcast to global phenomenon. He even wrote a book with the title, "I Am Not Spock" (1977) that was bought by millions of readers who didn't buy the title for a nanosecond. By 1995, he cried "uncle" by publishing a followup autobiography, "I Am Spock." In the years before and since, he carried his character's legacy with the grace and class he exhibited in other areas of his life. 

And the life of Leonard Nimoy, irrespective of Spock, was a rich and varied feast. Those two "Spock" books weren't the only things he'd published. A couple of books of poetry are also credited to him as were a collection of photographs celebrating what he termed "the feminine aspect of God." 
When did it come out?
1977