Short answers, pulled from the story.
Yes. Alan Dean Foster ghostwrote the original Star Wars novelization, which was published in 1976 under George Lucas's name alone. Foster's role as ghostwriter was not credited on the cover.
Splinter of the Mind's Eye is a 1978 novel by Alan Dean Foster written as a contingency plan: if Star Wars had been a box office failure, the book was intended to be adapted into a low-budget sequel. Because Star Wars became a blockbusting success, The Empire Strikes Back was developed instead.
Foster was not allowed to view H.R. Giger's design for the creature when writing the 1979 Alien novelization, so he used deliberately vague language, describing it as "something man-shaped but definitely not a man." The adaptation has been called a classic of the novelization form.
In 2020, Foster alleged that The Walt Disney Company had stopped paying him royalties for e-book sales of his Star Wars and Alien novels after acquiring those rights through its purchases of Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America supported his case, and Disney resolved the dispute in May 2021 by paying Foster and fellow Star Wars novelization authors James Kahn and Donald F. Glut.
Alan Dean Foster won the Grand Master award from the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers in 2008.
Foster holds the story credit for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, having written a treatment based on a two-page outline by Gene Roddenberry. He also produced novelizations of the 2009 Star Trek film and its sequel Star Trek Into Darkness.