Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward

1980 Del Rey book club edition in very good shape with some mild shelf-wear at the extremeties. Nice bright pages. Spine intact.  Locus Award for Best First Novel, 1981. Not about dragons. 
 
In a moving story of sacrifice and triumph, human scientists establish a relationship with intelligent lifeforms--the cheela--living on Dragon's Egg, a neutron star where one Earth hour is equivalent to hundreds of their years. The cheela culturally evolve from savagery to the discovery of science, and for a brief time, men are their diligent teachers.