Penguin First Editions :: Early First Edition Penguin Books

These books were intended as a new set of commentaries printed under the series heading of 'The Penguin Shakespeare Library', ('SL') to accompany the 'New Penguin Shakespeare' series ('NS') which commenced in April 1967. This series was launched in April 1967 with Shakespeare and the Idea of the Play by Anne Righter. The first two books, however bear the numbers 'PSL1' and 'PSL2', with the 'P' for Penguin being dropped after that.

Information and cover photographs of Penguin Shakespeare Library Series:

Number: SL1	Series No.: SL1 [PSL1] Title: SHAKESPEARE AND THE IDEA OF THE PLAY Author: Anne Righter Cover illustration: photo by Alan Spain and Nelson Christmas Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: April 1967 Pages: 208pp. Printer: Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press) Ltd Price: 5/-
Number: SL2	Series No.: SL2 [PSL2] Title: SHAKESPEARE'S COMEDIES; An anthology of modern criticism Edited: by Lawrence Lerner Cover illustration: photo by Alan Spain and Nelson Christmas Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: April 1967 Pages: 352pp. Printer: Cox and Wyman Ltd Price: 7/6d.
Number: SL3	Series No.: SL3 Title: ELIZABETHAN LOVE STORIES Edited: with an introduction and glossary by Terence John Bew Spencer Cover illustration: detail from 'An Allegorical Love Feast' by Peter Pourbus; photo by Rodney Todd-White (Wallace Collection) Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: February 1968 Pages: 224pp. Printer: Cox and Wyman Ltd Price: 5/-
Number: SL4	Series No.: SL4 Title: SHAKESPEARE'S PLUTARCH: The Lives of Julius Caesar, Brutus, Marcus Antonius and Coriolanus Edited: with introduction and glossary by Terence John Bew Spencer Translated: by Sir Thomas North Cover: shows detail from "The Vase Bearer' by Mantegna Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: April 1968 Pages: 368pp. Printer: Cox and Wyman Ltd Price: 10/6d. Previously published as a Peregrine, No. Y43 in March 1964
Number: SL5	Series No.: SL5 Title: LIFE IN SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND - A Book of Elizabethan Prose Author: J. Dover Wilson Illustrations: 8 pages of black-and-white photographic plates Cover illustration: *detail from Joris Hoefnagel's A Marriage Fête at Bermondsey, photo Rodney Todd-White* Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: October 1968 Pages: 360pp. + 8pp. Printer: Hazell, Watson and Viney Ltd Price: 40p 8/- Previously published as a Pelican, No. A143 in August 1944
Number: SL6	Series No.: SL6 Title: SHAKESPEARE: THE POET AND HIS BACKGROUND Author: Peter Quennell Illustrations: 8 pages of black-and-white photographic plates Cover illustration: *shows detail from Ball at the Englis Court, by an unknown artist* Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: March 1969 Pages: 368pp. + 8pp. Printer: Hazell, Watson and Viney Ltd Price: 50p 10/-
Number: SL7	Series No.: SL7 Title: SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS IN PERFORMANCE Author: John Russell Brown Illustrations: 12 pages of black-and-white photographic plates Cover illustration: detail from 'David Garrick as Richard III' by William Hogarth (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: March 1969 Pages: 272pp. + 12pp. Printer: Cox and Wyman Ltd Price: 40p 8/-
Number: SL8	Series No.: SL8 Title: SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES - An Anthology of Modern Criticism Edited: by Laurence Lerner Cover illustration: shows 'Lear Grasping Sword' by William Blake (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: October 1968 Pages: 320pp. Printer: Cox and Wyman Ltd Price: 5/- Previously published as a Pelican, No. A645 in January 1954
Number: SL9	Series No.: SL9 Title: DR JOHNSON ON SHAKESPEARE Edited: with an introduction by W. K. Wimsatt Cover illustration: engraved portrait of Samuel Johnson by T. Trottner (British Museum) Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: March 1969 Pages: 160pp. Printer: Hazell, Watson and Viney Ltd Price: 25p 5/-
Number: SL10	Series No.: SL10 Title: SHAKESPEARE'S PROBLEM COMEDIES Author: William Witherle Lawrence Cover illustration: shows detail from 'Thomas, Earl of Arundel' by Daniel Mytens (Duke of Norfolk Collection) Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: March 1969 Pages: 224pp. Printer: Cox and Wyman Ltd Price: 30p 6/-
Number: SL11	Series No.: SL11 Title: A SHAKESPEARE COMPANION Author: F. E. Halliday Cover: shows detail from 'Garrick unveiling a term of Shakespeare and the Ephesian Diana', enamel on gold, by J. Howes after Cipriani (Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C.) Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: November 1969 Pages: 576pp. Printer: Hazell, Watson and Viney Ltd Price: 60p 12/- Previously published as a Reference book, R27 in May 1964
Number: SL12	Series No.: SL12 Title: SHAW ON SHAKESPEARE: An anthology of Bernard Shaw's writings on the plays and production of Shakespeare Edited: with an introduction by Edwin Wilson Cover: shows detail from a portrait of G. B. Shaw by Augustus John Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: October 1969 Pages: Printer: Cox and Wyman Ltd Price: 60p 12/-
Number: SL13	Series No.: SL13 Title: COLERIDGE ON SHAKESPEARE: A slecetion of the Essays, Notes and Lectures of Samuel Taylor Coleridge on the poems and plays of Shakespeare Edited: and arranged by Terence Hawkes Introduction: by Alfred Harbage Cover: shows detail from aportrait of Samuel Tayloer Coleridge by Peter Vandyke Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: October 1969 Pages: 290pp. Printer: Cox and Wyman Ltd Price: 60p 12/-
Number: SL14	Series No.: SL14 Title: SHAKESPEARE'S HISTORY PLAYS Author: E. M. W. Tillyard Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Cover: shows detail from 'The Earl Marshal's challenge to the Earl of Derby' taken from a fifteenth-century MS of Froissart's Chronicle (British Museum, London) Date Published: January 1970 [printed date: 1969] Pages: 352pp. Printer: Hazell, Watson and Viney Ltd Price: 65p 13/- Previously published as a Peregrine, No. Y4 in March 1962
Number: SL15	Series No.: SL15 Title: SHAKESPEARE'S PROBLEM PLAYS Author: E. M. W. Tillyard Cover: shows Hamlet and Ophelia from an engraved glass panel by John Hutton (Shakespere Centre, Stratford upon Avon), photograph by Rodney Todd-White Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: 1969 Pages: 160pp. Printer: Cox and Wyman Ltd Price: 40p 8/- Previously published as a Peregrine, No. Y53 in April 1965
Number: SL16	Series No.: SL16 Title: SHAKESPEARE IN EUROPE Edited: by Oswald Le Winter Cover: shows detail scene from 'The Winter's Tale' by Henry Fuseli Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: 1970 Pages: 384pp. Printer: Cox and Wyman Ltd Price: 60p 12/-
Number: SL17	Series No.: SL17 Title: SHAKESPEARE'S LATER COMEDIES: An Anthology of Modern Criticism Edited: by D. J. Palmer Cover: shows detail from 'St Mark rescues the Saracen' by Tintoretto Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: 1971 Pages: 464pp. Printer: Hazell, Watson and Viney Ltd Price: 75p 15/-
Number: SL18	Series No.: SL18 Title: SHAKESPEARE'S HISTORIES: An Anthology of Modern Criticism Edited: by William A. Armstrong Cover: design by Germano Facetti shows the head of a gilt copper effigy of Richard II by Nicholas Broker and Godfrey Prest (Westminster Abbey), photograph by Chris Barker Series Editor: Terence John Bew Spencer Date Published: 1972 Pages: 288pp. Printer: Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press) Ltd Price: 75p

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