Penguin First Editions :: Early First Edition Penguin Books

Some of the topics from our mailbag....

	TOPIC: What do the different book cover colours mean? QUESTION: Penguin use different colours on their covers. What does this mean? Do they have a system? RESPONSE: Penguin (in their main series) used colours to signify different types of book. Fiction were in Orange covers; Biography (and memoirs) in Dark Blue; Crime and Mystery in Green; Travel and Adventure in Cerise, Plays in Red, and Miscellaneous in Yellow. Later Penguins published Essays and Belles Lettres in a Light Purple and World Affairs in Grey. Penguin also began with a 'History' category [see No. 31] however, since this was 'non-fiction' they went on to publsh such titles in the Pelican series. The List is as follows: Cover Colours are as follows: Orange = General Fiction (F) Green = Mystery and Crime (C) Cerise = Travel and Adventure (T) Dark Blue = Biography (B) Grey = World Affairs (W) Violet = Essays and Belles Lettres (E) Red = Plays (P) Yellow = Miscellaneous Penguins (M) The separate series of Pelicans ('A') were produced with a Pale Blue cover. Penguin Specials ('S') were produced with Red covers, although a few Pelican Specials were produced in Pale Blue (same colour as ordinary 'Pelicans'), and a few volumes of A Penguin Handbook in the 'Specials' series were produced with Green covers. Colours were also used to signify the original Language that an early Penguin Classics book ('L') had been written in, or the region it came from. The series commenced in 1946 and 122 titles with coloured covers were produced until 1962, after which a new cover design for the Classics (known as the 'BLACK CLASSICS') was produced by Penguin's Director of Art, Germano Facetti. The original colour scheme was as follows: Brown = Greek Green = French Purple = Latin Blue = Italian Red = Russian Orange = Old English Olive = German Mustard = Middle Eastern Buff = Scandinavian Yellow = Far Eastern Peacock = Spanish Rose = Portuguese To see the Penguin Classics series click here THE FORCES BOOK CLUB Each month between October 1942 and September 1943 a selection of 10 Penguin Books was made available to service units at £3 for the year, for a parcel each month of 10 books, totalling 120 books in all. There was a print run of 75,000 of each title. Every month's selection of 10 books had a different coloured cover as follows: Month: 1 - OCTOBER 1942 = RED Month: 2 - NOVEMBER 1942 = GREEN Month: 3 - DECEMBER 1942 = LIGHT BLUE Month: 4 - JANUARY 1943 = YELLOW Month: 5 - FEBRUARY 1943 = CERISE Month: 6 - MARCH 1943 = TURQUOISE Month: 7 - APRIL 1943 = ORANGE Month: 8 - MAY 1943 = LIME Month: 9 - JUNE 1943 = VIOLET Month: 10 - JULY 1943 = GREY Month: 11 - AUGUST 1943 = DARK RED Month: 12 - SEPTEMBER 1943 = DARK BLUE To see the page on Forces Book Club click here ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
	TOPIC: How Can I tell if my book is a First Edition Penguin? QUESTION: I was interested in buying a first edition of Ariel by André Maurois. I have read that in has been published in both hardback and paperback versions. Which type was the 'original' first edition? Also are all copies published in 1935 first editions or was there more than one publication that year? How can one tell a genuine 'first edition'? RESPONSE: Ariel was first published by John Lane at The Bodley Head in 1924. There were then various reprints of this hardback. Allen Lane, who founded Penguin Books in 1935, was at the time also Managing Director of The Bodley Head publishing house. He used some of The Bodley Head's booklist for his first batch of Penguins. He chose Ariel to be No. 1 of the first batch of 10 books published in July 1935. When Penguin Books Ltd was founded in 1935 they did not commission new books but used existing books already published. As a new company this meant that they had to either use their own books (from The Bodley Head) or buy the publication rights from other publishers. So, all the earliest Penguin books have a 'First Published' date prior to 1935 and may state the original publisher e.g. The Bodley Head or Jonathan Cape. They may then show further reprinting dates or dates of other editions. Then, you will see a line which says 'First Published in Penguin Books' which is the date/year when it was first published by Penguin Books. So, a first from Penguins among the numbers 1 to 20 would read: 'First Published in Penguin Books .. .. 1935'. These early books were very popular and the initial print run soon ran out and so they reprinted the book. Reprints in Penguin are then listed below the 'First Published in Penguin Books' date. So a copy you have may well show first reprint, second reprint, third reprint etc. with a date. The second image on the left shows the title verso page of a copy of Ariel. [The title verso page (the reverse or page behind the title page) holds information about copyright and author, publisher's details and date of publication, and details of printer.] On that image you can see the book's history. Originally published in 1924, and about half-way down "Published in Penguin Books JULY 1935". That is when it was first published by Penguin Books. If that was the final entry, then you would have a first edition. But in this case you can see that it was reprinted in August and October 1935, twice in 1936, and this book is from the "Ninth impression SEPTEMBER 1940". If you are collecting, and buying or selling, then using the right terms is important. A First Edition: refers to when a book is first printed for the first time - in the case of Ariel this was in 1924 by The Bodley Head. Reprint: is a reprinting of the book at a later date in the same form and same text as in the original of that edition. This is sometimes called an 'Impression' such as in a 'Second impression'. New edition, revised edition, second edition etc.* means that the book is different in some way from a previous edition. For example, it could have been brought up-to-date, has an extra chapter or has major revisions or corrections. In the case of Penguin Books terminology is important. All these early books which had been previously published are not technically 'first editions' but they are 'first impressions'. So the first 10 books published by Penguin in July 1935 are all first impressions. Therefore, subsequent reprintings mean that the book is a second impression or third impression etc. However, whether you call them 'Penguin first impressions' or 'Penguin first editions' collectors know that this means it is the first time that it was printed by Penguin Books. And, of course, books that were first printed by Penguin are indeed first editions. There are a few examples of where the 'First Published date' is incorrect. Usually this is where the date given is either the year before or after actual date of publication for several reasons - but it is still a first edition. Occasionally, by error, the printer has accidentally left off inserting the 'Reprint' date and thus the book appears to be a first Penguin edition when it is not. Often there will be other indicators, such as if 'The Bodley Head' is shown on the cover, a list of contemporaneous books on the back, the price, the type of binding etc., that will give clues as to when the book was actually produced. ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪*
	TOPIC: What is my Penguin book worth? QUESTION: What are Penguin Books worth? Are some really valuable? RESPONSE: We are often asked about the value of the Penguin Books listed on our web-site. Anything is only worth what someone else will pay for it. And Penguin books are no exception - they can go for as little as 0.99p on eBay, or reach around £400 after competitive bidding, depending on scarcity and condition. We have devoted a whole page to this question. Please see our full article by clicking here ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
	TOPIC: PENGUIN READING CASES QUESTION: I have a Pelican first edition paperback from 1938 which has been slotted inside an orange cloth and cardboard cover that has the silver penguin logo on the front and on the spine. Do you know anything about this? I can't seem to find any information and would love to know more. RESPONSE: Penguin produced 'special Penguin reading-cases' to help protect the books. These were made of card covered by cloth. However, since the books were still mostly 6d. in price and the covers cost as much as the book, another sixpence, not many were bought. I only had two blue ones, but I presume they came in a range of Penguin colours, probably orange being intended for fiction books. On the left are two images; one of the bottom part of the back flap of a dust jacket, which advertises the covers. This is from an orange fiction book, the rectangle being cut out and stuck on the spine of the 'reading-cover'. The second is of a Pelican Special with its 'reading-cover'. If you look carefully you will see the sticker for 'Arnold Bennett * Literary Taste'. If you have books with dust jackets from the 1938 period these should have the Reading-case labels. ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
	TOPIC: *How many Ariel* and 'First Ten' books were printed?** QUESTION: When Allen Lane started Penguin Books how many of Ariel and the 'First Ten' books were printed in July 1935? RESPONSE: Allen Lane estimated that he needed to sell around 17,000 of each title to break even financially. His first venture comprised a batch of 10 titles. He ordered 20,000 copies of each book, but because advanced orders from booksellers only amounted to about 7,000 copies of each title, he only had the first 10,000 of each bound. However, once the books were launched, the venture became an immediate success and they sold well, and shortly afterwards Woolworths ordered an additional 63,000 books. There were many reprints, with the second impression almost immediately after in August, and a third in October. By the end of 1935, Penguin had published two batches of ten books (on 30 July and 18 October) and sold a million copies. By July 1936 they had published 50 titles, and sales reached 3 million, a turnover of £75,000. Each title averaging 60,000 copies. Opposite is an advertisement placed by Penguin Books in The Weekly Trade Guide of 5 October 1936. Selling 3 million books in a year equates to selling one every ten seconds 24/7 for the whole year. Quite an achievement! ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
	TOPIC: Bursaries for students QUESTION: I'm a Master's student doing a course in publishing, media and print and am thinking about doing my dissertation on an aspect of Penguin Books. Are there any grants or burseries to help? RESPONSE:Thank you for your question. As it happens the Penguin Collectors Society (PCS) runs a Post-Graduate (PG) Bursary Scheme. At present, 15 Universities in the U.K. are affiliated to the Scheme, and students undertaking a post-graduate MA, MSc or MRes are eligible to apply. The Bursary is available through open competition to post-graduate students studying at one of the 15 Affiliated Universities. The University will internally advertise the Bursary to master's students studying one of their approved programmes either as a single subject or in a combined study. The Bursary is to support the Dissertation Module or its equivalent where independent study is to be demonstrated. This is normally taken in Semester 2 of a one-year, full-time programme or in year two of a part-time programme. Depending on its credit value the Dissertation will have a word limit of between 12-15,000 words in an MA/MSc and up to 20,000 words in a MRes. The Bursary is available to support travel and access to archival material, library collections, named people employed by Penguin Books or authors/illustrators involved in Penguin publications. The Bursary will be disbursed via the University. For more details about the PCS Post-Graduate Bursary Scheme and the list of the 15 participating Universities please click here. ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
No. 1,937 The fake! The Bookseller, May 3, 1945	TOPIC: Are there fake Penguins? QUESTION: I've heard that there has been a fake Penguin book. Which one was it? RESPONSE: When collecting Penguin Books, it is natural to assume that a book bearing the Penguin Books logo and with a recognised Penguin cover design should be a genuine Penguin. Though there is no evidence to suggest that anyone has tried to create a fake to fool collectors, fakes do exist. We highlight two different types here. First, is the interesting example of The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway, number 1,937. Written in 1946, it was first published in 1952 and gained immediate acclaim, winning the Pullitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and Hemmingway being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. Penguin first published the book in the UK in 1966 and you can see a copy of a 1967 reprint opposite. However, another version also appeared with the familiar orange and white banded cover. This was not produced by Penguin. The front and back covers of this unusual 'Penguin' are also shown opposite. Note the title reads 'The Old Men and the Sea'. This is a pirated copy, thought to be from Taiwan, purporting to be a Penguin book by Hemmingway. It is a poor photo-offset reprint of the Jonathan Cape edition of 1957. Printed on the last page of the book (rather than on the title verso) is the statement "Printed in Britain by Camelot Press Ltd", who were the printers of the Jonathan Cape edition. On the back cover is printed the name of another publisher 'Nobel Publishing Co., Ltd.,' (with an extra final comma). A fake copy! Second, is the unusual story, and we say this with trepidation, that Allen Lane may well have created his own fake Penguin. An article appeared in The Bookseller of 3rd May, 1945 purporting to have discovered a fake Penguin ostensibly produced by the Nazi propaganda machine. The fact that no information about this can be found in any archives or that any copy (including the original) has ever been located seems to point to the story, and Penguin look-alike cover, being the work of Penguin's founder, who thought he had discovered a good publicity stunt. There are one or two clues in the article about 'Penquin' and 'the metic lous care' which seem to suggest more of an April Fools approach. Helpfully, the article concludes "Penguin Books could not receive a higher compliment." ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
<	TOPIC: What are ISBNs? Why do the early Penguins not have them? QUESTION:What are ISBNs? Why do the early Penguins not have them? My early Penguin books have only a series number like Pelican 'A6'. The later books have only a long string of numbers. RESPONSE: ISBN is the acronym for International Standard Book Number. They were introduced in 1970, so earlier Penguin Books - from 1935 to around 1970 did not have them. Since 1970 each published book has allocated a unique ISBN. For the first 27 years they were 10 digits (ISBN 10) but in 2007, assigned ISBNs changed from 10 digits to 13, which provided for an increase in the availability of ISBNs worldwide. The 10 digits in the ISBN number represent various parts: Each ISBN-10 has four parts, like in this example, ISBN 0 14 042144 0 Each part has a different meaning: The group identifier identifies the country or region or language in which it has been published. The publisher identifier represents the publisher of the book, major publshers are recognised by having fewer digits. The title identifier identifies the specific edition of the book. It may have up to six digits and helps ensure the ISBN is 10 digits long. The check digit is created using the first nine digits in the ISBN and is used to check its accuracy. In the case of Penguin Books, the region is 0, and the Publisher 14. The next 6 digits (the title digits) are used by Penguin to identify the series, and the second three the book number. So in the case of the 'Penguin Poets' series it is '42' and the book (Selected Poems of D. H. Lawrence, published in 1972) is number 144. We therefore have 0 14 042.144 Penguin often placed a 'dot' between the series and title numbers. After which there is a space and then the final or check digit. [see first two images on left] The check digit is the last digit of the ISBN. Its value is calculated from the other nine digits of the ISBN and provides, as its name implies, a check on the validity of the ISBN. If, in transcribing the ISBN, a mistake is made such as a wrong number or a transposition error, there is a good chance that the resulting ISBN will be invalid, indicating the error. The check digit at the end is never identical to the one in an ISBN-13 number. The check digit is the result of a set of calculations, multiplying each of the nine numbers and then adding them together. The resultant sum is divided by 11, and the remainder is deducted from 11. Since the check digit is only one digit, if the number remaining is a '10' then two digits cannot be used, so an 'X' is used instead. In the example above [ISBN 10] 0140421440 and working from left to right, '0' is the region; '14' the Publisher (Penguin Books); '042' the series (Penguin Poets); '144' the book title (Selected Poems of D. H. Lawrence); and '0' the check number. The second set of images on the left show the ISBN number for The New Penguin World Atlas published in 1979. The second row of numbers show '051' for the series Penguin Reference, and '096' is the number in the series. '6' is the check number. ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
	TOPIC: What do the two prices 50p 10/- together mean? QUESTION: There's something I'm not sure about. Original book prices are listed as "25p 5/-", or "50p 10/-". My guess is that the original price for the paperback edition was 25 pence or 50 pence, but I'm not sure what the number that follows the slash stands for. Is that the price for the hardcover edition? RESPONSE: Sorry if some of the pricing seems confusing. Penguins started out at 6d. - that was six old pence which equates to 2.5p in our current money (new pence). In those days there were pounds (£); shillings (s) with 20 shillings to a pound; and pence (d) with 12 pence to a shilling or 240 pence in a pound. They were written as £ s d. The shorthand for shillings was a slash. 2 shillings written as 2/- (or 2 shillings and no pence). Two shillings and six pence was written as 2/6d. 10/- (ten shillings) is half a pound or 50p. In February 1972 the UK currency changed from the centuries old system to Decimal, and for a while in the run up to the change, Penguin gave both prices, new and old e.g. 25p or 5/- Where the book cover shows both, I have given both prices. Hope this explains. ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
	TOPIC: Difference between the print and publication date QUESTION: Why do you sometimes show two different dates - a publication date but also a printed date which might be different? RESPONSE:Thanks for your question. There is a conundrum about this; and for our purposes we have called the date printed on the verso title page, the 'printed date'. This is the date that the printers have printed on the book. The 'Published Date' is the day, month or year when Penguin issued the book for sale to the public. Generally the two dates or years are the same and the date of publication should equate to the date of printing. Nearly all differences are that the date/year of publication is later than the time of printing. Clearly the book can't be sold before it is produced! So, generally it is likely that it may have been printed, say in November one year and distributed February the next. Clearly as Penguin planned batches of ten titles, then some might be produced well in advance. Sometimes they were even over a year later. Books are printed ahead of publication, and sometimes books are printed in one year are intended to be published in the next. Mostly, where this is anticipated (and remembered!) the printer will print the expected publication date, but errors can occur. Sometimes there can be a delay in launching the book, so it is printed in one year with the expectation of being published in the same year, but is in fact published in the next. So the most likely explanation is simply getting the books printed and then marketed later. The first two images on the left show books which were published in January of the following year. But strangely the converse is also true - and we have come across books where the printed date is later than publication date. There could be a number of reasons for this: a book might come out earlier than orginally anticipated perhaps to fill the gap of another book which has been delayed. Another scenario is that for whatever reason, the printer simply put on the wrong year - less likely, but errors can always happen, perhaps particularly round the end of the year, when the printers own timetable may have assumed a run the next year and then the project was brought forward. And finally, our information simply may be incorrect. We rely on Penguin's own lists (internal and published catalogues); it could just be that things were delayed and our evidence was in reality only an intention to publish in say 1953, but the printed date on the back of the title page states 1954 - which, in fact, might have been the true date of publication - after all, it is now 70 years on and who can say? As seen in our third image, a book which was published in December 1952 but originally planned for the following year. ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
Bodley Head 1936 hardback Main series no. 3,000	TOPIC: Most expensive book rights QUESTION: What was the most expensive book rights paid by Penguin Books? RESPONSE: In 1934, when Allen Lane ran The Bodley Head he wanted to publish James Joyce's Ulysses . Because the book had in already been found to be obscene in the USA, the board at Bodley Head were reluctant to take on this project and Allen Lane had to personally underwrite the purchase of the rights and the printing venture. Finally, in 1936, after he had founded Penguin Books, he managed to publish Ulysses, but only in hardback, and initially as a limited printing. He had wanted to publish the book in paperback but feared prosecution (at that time there being a perceptual difference between publishing a hardback book for 'gentlemen' and paperbacks for the 'working classes'). Though the hardback book was a success, he was not able to save the company from liquidation, and The Bodley Head (with its lists) was bought by a consortium of other publishers. In 1968 he finally acquired the British paperback rights to Ulysses, paying an advance of £75,000, then the highest in paperback history. 33 years after he first published it in hard back, he was able to publish the paperback version in Britain as Penguin no. 3,000. This he did on 23rd April 1969, the 50th Anniversary of his start in publishing at The Bodley Head. By the end of 1970, the book had sold 420,000 copies. Penguin no. 3,000 James Joyce: Ulysses ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
Main Series no. 2,553 back cover	TOPIC: The destruction of Siné's Massacre QUESTION: Is it true Allen Lane tried to destroy one of the books he published? RESPONSE: In 1963, Tony Godwin, Chief Editor at Penguin Books, had agreed to buy the rights to Siné's Massacre . Siné was a French cartoonist, and though he produced material that was risqué and tending towards the blasphemous, Godwin believed publication was in the tradition of Penguins. (Previously, Penguin had published James Thurber, Ronald Searle, David Low, Peter Arno and others, and also Lady Chatterley's Lover. The tradition was a long one, going back to Lane publishing Joyce's Ulysses and Arno's cartoons while at The Bodley Head.) The book had previously been published in France. The Penguin edition was introduced by Malcolm Muggeridge, a well-known broadcaster and Christian, who approved its depiction of 'moral confusion in the State and Church' However, Allen Lane wasn't so sure. He sent a copy to a friend, the editor of the Times Literary Supplement (TLS), who passed it round the office and reported back that it had not caused offence. Allen Lane was still not happy and raised the matter at a Board meeting in October 1966. Godwin defended his position, and while the few 'old guard' on the Board generally supported Lane, most of the Board were for publishing. It was not put to a vote. When the book was published in November 1966 the office was 'deluged with correspondence' from worried clergymen and indignant booksellers, some who he had known for years. One, from Una Dillon, said "For the first time in my life I have decided against stocking a Penguin" the work was blasphemous and "in exceedingly bad taste". Lane again raised it with his Board but by that time, with the book printed, sent to booksellers and in the public domain, it was too late. Allen Lane decided to act. At about midnight George Nicholls, the warehouse manager, was telephoned and asked to meet Allen at the warehouse. When he got there, he found Sir Allen, and three others. "He said George, open up the building will you. Those bloody Sinés - those were the exact words he said to me. So we opened up the building, we walked up to the warehouse. He said, I've got Singleton round the back with the farm wagon. He said I'm going to pinch all those Sinés. Crikey, I said. He said, George, that bloody Board outvoted me today but I'll have my own back on them". They then loaded up the wagon and Lane took them to his farm and destroyed them. After that the books were listed as 'out of print' and not republished by Penguin. Consequently, these books are quite hard to find. Quoted in Allen Lane and the Penguin Editors 1935 - 1970 by Steve Hare (1995), Penguin Books, Harmondsworth. Penguin no. 2,553 Siné's: Massacre ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
Classics number: L1 number: 1,484	TOPIC: Best selling Penguin Book QUESTION: What was the most popular best-selling book ever published by Penguin? RESPONSE:Early in Penguin's history, a series which proved as popular and prestigious as the Pelicans and Specials was launched. Allen Lane had met E.V. Rieu, who translated Homer's Odyssey for his family during the blitz. Allen Lane liked it and asked him to edit a series. In January 1946 the Penguin 'Classics' were born. The series was an immediate hit, and Rieu's own first translation, The Odyssey, numbered 'L1', became Penguin's best-selling book with over 3 million copies sold before it was eclipsed. The Classics' traditional covers were finally replaced by what became known as the 'Black Classics', because of their black background, and the cover design has changed since then. Nowadays 20,000 Penguin Classics are sold world-wide each day.(You can see the 'Classics' pages by clicking here.) However, in November 1959 Allen Lane decided to publish an unexpurgated edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover as part of a number of Lawrence's books to mark the 30th Anniversary of the author's death. Penguin had already published a set of ten novels by D. H. Lawrence in March 1950, one of its famous 'million books', with altogether 13 Lawrence titles in print. Lane wanted to mark this anniversary with a further seven, including Lady Chatterley's Lover. Although Lane was aware that he was taking a risk, the new Obscene Publications Act of 1959 had changed the balance in terms of judging the whole book instead of individual parts, and also he noted that prosecution had been dropped in the USA. He placed an initial print order with Hazell, Watson and Viney but they wrote back on 1st April 1960 that they could not proceed with printing the unexpurgated version. Allen eventually found Western Printing Services willing to produce the book, providing they were indemnified, and 200,000 copies were ordered. However, the change of printers caused delays and Penguin had to inform the trade press. This caught the attention of the Director of Public Prosecutions who, supplied with a copy of an unexpurgated version printed abroad, instructed the police to investigate. What followed was a prosecution and a trial in a blaze of publicity. When Penguin won, the book was launched immediately, and the printers Hazell, Watson and Viney together with Cox and Wyman also produced additional copies. Penguin sold 2 million copies by Christmas 1960, and a further 1.3 million in 1961. In just over a year, Penguin sold 3.3 million copies of Lady Chatterley's Lover. (You can see the story of Lady Chatterley's Lover in our History section by clicking here.) Penguin no. 1,484 Lady Chatterley's Lover ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
Georges Simenon Nikolas Pevsner William Skakespeare P. G. Wodehouse Erle Stanley Gardner	TOPIC: Most Published Author QUESTION: Which author is the most published by Penguin Books?. RESPONSE: Penguin clearly had some favourites, and sometimes these were marked by their million books issue when 100,000 copies of 10 books by an individual author was simultaneously published. (More of that below at What were the Penguin 'Tens'?). Some book-writing families had large outputs - such as Charles Dickens and his great-granddaughter Monica Dickens, or the Huxley family. However, below are listed Penguin's 14 top most published authors with over 20 titles: 1st with 69 volumes - Georges Simenon. A prolific Belgian-French crime/detective writer with 'Inspector Maigret'. Simenon wrote over 400 novels and memoirs with Maigret appearing in 75 novels and 28 short stories. Between 1945 and 2007 Penguin published 127 different Maigret covers. 2nd with 44 volumes - Nikolas Pevsner* and his Buildings of England Series, but he also edited many books for Penguin including most of the King Penguin Series and the Pelican History of Art. 3rd with 40 volumes - William Shakespeare. Shakespeare's plays have been published in Penguin's 'B' series, the American 'AB' series and the Penguin New Shakespeare 'NS' series. 4th with 39 volumes - P. G. Wodehouse. His popular characters of 'Jeeves' and 'Berty Wooster' amused the British reading public. 5th with 34 volumes - Erle Stanley Gardner. This American crime writer became well known for his 'Perry Mason' novels. 6th with 29 volumes - D. H. Lawrence. Novels and Stories 7th with 26 volumes - Agatha Christie . Crime/Detective with 'Poirot' and 'Miss Marple'. (She was a friend of Allen Lane) =8th with 24 volumes - H. E. Bates. Novels. =8th with 24 volumes - Michael Innes. Crime Detective with 'John Appleby'. (Innes was the pseudonym of J. I. M. Stewart) =8th with 24 volumes - George Bernard Shaw. Plays and non-fiction. (Shaw was one of Allen Lane's favourite authors) =11th with 23 volumes - W. Somerset Maugham. Novels =11th with 23 volumes - Ellery Queen. Crime/Detective with 'Ellery Queen' a mystery writer who helped the police solve murder cases. (Ellery Queen was the pseudonym for a double act - writers Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee) 13th with 22 volumes - John Dickson Carr. Crime/Detective However, he also wrote under the pseudonym of Carter Dickson with a further 10 volumes - both combined would push him up to 6th place with a total of 32 volumes 14th with 21 volumes - Margery Allingham. Crime/Detective with 'Albert Campion' Number of entries on our Author List - books published for the period 1935 to early 1970s - as covered by this website. ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪*
	TOPIC: What were the Penguin Tens? QUESTION: I've heard of the 'Penguin Tens'. What were the Penguin Tens? Is it true that Penguin produced a million books at a time? RESPONSE: In the late 1940s and during the 1950s Penguin simultaneously published sets of 'tens'. These were a mix of ten new titles or reprints of a well-known author and the promotion of 'tens' was sometimes to mark an anniversary or birthday. For some of these special events a million books would be printed (100,000 of each title). Indeed, on the first such launch, the entire million was sold within 6 weeks. TENS 10 George Bernard Shaw: 26 July 1946 (90th Birthday) 10 H. G. Wells: 21 September 1946 (80th Birthday) 10 Agatha Christie: August 1948 and a further 10 on 22 May 1953 10 Ngaio Marsh: July 1949 10 D. H. Lawrence: March 1950 (20th Anniversary of his death), and a further 6 to mark the 30th anniversary of his death on 23 June 1960 10 Margery Allingham: June 1950 10 Evelyn Waugh: May 1951 10 Carter Dickson: June 1951 (and 5 volumes as John Dickson Carr: 24 July 1953) 10 Georges Simenon: January 1952, and a further 5 on 13 February 1958 10 Aldous Huxley: 28 April 1955 10 C. S. Forester: 12 January 1956 10 John Buchan: 31 May 1956 Others 11 jointly between Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton: 20 November 1958 5 Peter Cheyney: August 1949 5 Freeman Wills Croft: 23 January 1953 5 P. G Wodehouse: 24 April 1953, a further 5 on 30 July 1954, and another 5 on 10 January 1957 5 Erle Stanley Gardner: 22 January 1954 5 Arnold Bennet: 21 May 1954 4 Ernest Hemmingway: 30 June 1955 5 Ellery Queen: 30 August 1956 ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
Main series no. 78	TOPIC: *'The Bodley Head': Is my No. 24: Trent's Last Case* a First Edition?** QUESTION: I have a copy of Trent's Last Case by E.C. Bentley, No.78. The copyright page reads "First published in Penguin Books 1937." No other printings are listed, suggesting that this is a first. On the front cover, in the white band, there are the words "Mystery and Crime" on either side of the title/author's name. However, I have noticed that other listings for first editions of this title have the words "The Bodley Head" on either side of the title/author's name. They, too, have "First published in Penguin Books 1937" on the copyright page. So, the quick question is: are both of these first editions, one a variant, perhaps? Or are the words "Mystery and Crime" immediately suggestive of a subsequent printing, even though there is no such indication on the copyright page? If you could give a quick response, I would be most appreciative. RESPONSE: Penguin started up in July 1935 as a new venture undertaken by Allen Lane, who was at that time also Managing Director of 'The Bodley Head' publishing house. Allen Lane took his idea to the Board of The Bodley Head who were not convinced and refused to back the venture. 'Respectable' publishers, such as they felt they were, viewed paperbacks as 'dirty rubbish' and would have nothing to do with it. They did, however, rather grudgingly agree to let Allen Lane pursue this rather dubious project in his own spare time and to use the offices and imprint of the firm, but that he would have to fund it himself. While the new venture quickly became a success, The Bodley Head was failing. In order to protect his new Penguin project, Allen Lane quickly raised £100 capital to form a separate limited company 'Penguin Books Ltd.' as a private firm with his two brothers (Richard and John) as directors, and on 15 January 1936 Penguin Books was created. He resigned as a director of The Bodley Head a few months later and The Bodley Head imprint ceased to be used on Penguin books after January 1937. All first editions (and other impressions) published up to 15th January 1937 carried the imprint of 'The Bodley Head' on the cover. By 15th January 1937 Penguin had published 8 batches of 10 books, i.e. 80 books in total. So the first 80 bear 'The Bodley Head' imprint. After that, (no. 81 on 19 March 1937 onwards) in its place on the front cover, running down both sides of the middle white section, the type of publication relating to its contents - such as Fiction, Biography, Crime and Mystery or Travel and Adventure. So, it sounds like yours is a reprint, perhaps later in 1937, and perhaps the printers overlooked the reprint date. But without 'The Bodley Head' on the cover this is not the first Penguin printing. It is sometimes also useful to look for other evidence. What is on the back cover or inside back pages? Listings of current books, or adverts for other books which could help date it? ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
Chronological List List of Series Page Index	TOPIC: How are Penguin Books organised? QUESTION: The Penguin range is vast. Can you please tell me how Penguin Books are organised? What types of books, series or categories are there? RESPONSE: When Penguins began in July 1935, they started with simply their MAIN PENGUIN SERIES numbered from no. 1. They reached their first 1,000 titles by 1954, 2,000 by 1964 and 3,000 by 1969. But it didn't stop there. Allen Lane, Penguin's founder, launched further series in 1937. They were series PENGUIN SHAKESPEARE with pre-fix 'B' in April 1937 and the PELICANS with pre-fix 'A' series in May 1937. Later that year he went on and introduced the 'S' PENGUIN (and Pelican) SPECIALS series. Over the next few years Penguin added the 'PS' PUFFIN STORY BOOKS series for children, which carries on to this day, 'R' PENGUIN REFERENCE BOOKS , 'PH' PENGUIN HANDBOOKS, and books on science and art. In just over 10 years, by January 1946, Penguins launched the first volume of their 34th series - the impressive 'L' PENGUIN CLASSICS series. And they continued creating many more new series. This web-site can help you in a number of ways. We provide a comprehensive list in the order the series were created in our CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF EARLY PENGUIN SERIES . Many collectors search for their books using the Penguin prefixes, such as 'A', 'AB', 'AU', 'B', 'BE', or 'C' etc. We provide a list of all the early Penguin Series in alphabetical order at COMPLETE LIST OF ALL PENGUIN SERIES . Finally, we list over 125 pages of Penguin Series plus many more pages including publications such as Penguins Progress, Classified Lists, Penguin Ephemera, as well as lists of illustrators and translators. All these can be found at our COMPLETE PAGE INDEX . Hopefelly, these will help you understand how the books are organised and to navigate the huge output of the Penguin Books publishing house. ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
no. 2 no. 845 no.1,823 no. 1,420 no. 1,417 no. 1,595	TOPIC: Vertical and horizontal band cover design QUESTION: Can you tell me when did the three horizontal band cover design change to the vertical design? RESPONSE: The original horizontal tri-band design of Penguin Books was created in 1935 by Edward Young (no. 2) and the typography subsequently tidied up when Jan Tschichold became Penguin's typographer in 1947. In 1949 Hans Schmoller took over as Penguin typographer and many of the covers changed their look - Pelicans 'A', Classics 'L' and Penguin Handbooks 'PH' all changed in appearance to a rectangular grid during the period 1949-1951. The first vertical design appeared in the main series in October 1951 with no. 845 (Collected Plays) and lasted for just over 10 years. It was eventually superseded by the Romek Marber grid, used initially in 1961 for crime but then extended to other covers. The vertical design was phased out and last appeared in June 1963 on 1,823 (though the highest number was 1,847). The original iconic tri-band design last appearance on an orange fiction book was no. 1,357 on 23 April 1959. Its survival on green crime books was somewhat different. The last green tri-band (old style) crime and mystery book was 1,420 on 26 November 1959. However, Penguin introduced a modernised version, no. 1,417 first appearing on 25 February 1960 (lowest number is 1,384). This lasted till no. 1,643 (28 September 1961) after which it was replaced by the Marber grid. 1,595 (26 October 1961) ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
costs	TOPIC: Cost of producing Penguin books QUESTION: What did it cost to produce the early Penguin books? How was the cost of a sixpenny Penguin Book worked out? RESPONSE: Allen Lane was keen to keep the price of a Penguin Book down to the minimum and set his initial price at six pence (6d.) which in 1935 was roughly the same price as a packet of cigarettes. One pound (£1) would have bought you 40 books at 6d. To keep prices low Allen Lane had to produce large print-runs so that he could get savings from large-scale production. A print-run might start at about 50,000 books. Beginning with the retailer, they usually took 1/3rd of the price, so 2d. out of every 6d. went to the bookseller. That left 4d. Penguin Books wanted to publish books by modern authors and copyright had to be paid. The author and publisher took a further 6% (or 0.36d.) royalty for copyright. This left 3.64d. for everything else. The paper on which the text was printed cost 0.74d and the cost of printing, binding, cardboard covers and producing the dust jackets was a further 1.70d. - a total for production costs of 2.44d. Everything else, the editorial costs, administration and office costs, staff wages, packaging and distribution, and rent and rates had to come out of the 1.20d. (or 20%) per copy that was left. You san see the costs in graphic form by clicking on the pie chart on the left. After a year of operation Penguin had produced 3 million books with a turnover of £75,000. Allen Lane and his brothers paid themselves from the staff wages bill and any profits made were ploughed back into the business. ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
	TOPIC: I can't find a Penguin Reference book on your web-site QUESTION:Hello, I am trying to find out more information about "The Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words", by Bill Bryson. It is labelled "Penguin Reference" on the title, but I have been unable to locate it on your Reference web page. Thank you for any assistance. RESPONSE: 'The Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words' is a Penguin Reference book, but this web-site tends to have just the earlier Penguins - and we stop most series around 1970 for various reasons, though some do go on a little bit later. The Bill Bryson book was printed in 1987 and would have been book no. 200 in the 'R' series. It has the ISBN 10 identifier 014051200 4. If you go to our 'R' PENGUIN REFERENCE BOOKS page, it ends at R100, which is around the year 1981. We also have an intresting FAQ on What are ISBN numbers? ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
Collectors lists	TOPIC: Collecting: owning a copy v. quality QUESTION: Collecting: do you purchase a book just to own it despite its quality? Or you do hold out on getting one in a better condition? RESPONSE: This is a really interesting question and the answer depends very much on the collector. Initially, a collector of a series of books might want to collect one of each. In a sense, he or she will be filling gaps so that they have the whole series or a complete set. So, at the initial stage they might acquire the book rather than be too concerned about its condition. However, some collectors are more particular and will only go for a book of a certain quality and therefore only buy a better copy. So, some collectors may start off with whatever they can find and, as they go along, will upgrade when they find a better copy than the copy they obtained originally. In this way their collection gradually improves in quality over time, and they use the copies that have been replaced as 'swaps' to trade with others. Also, some collectors aim to have really very good or 'fine' copies that get as close to looking like as 'brand new' as possible, with dust jackets where these were originally sold with the book. The fewer marks, tears or creases the better. They will be concerned about the spine, rubbing or wear to the edges, the whiteness of the paper and so on. On the other hand, some collectors see their books as telling a story and the wear it has endured, the owners names written on the covers, annotations along the text, dog-eared corners, price or shop stickers, rubber stamp marks and so on help to give the book its character. Collectors generally keep various records at home, and carry notebooks on them so that they know what they want, what they have and what they want to upgrade. In the past these might be little pocket notebooks with numbers listed in small writing. These days, many collectors access their lists digitally on their mobile phones. ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪
	TOPIC: Collecting Penguins - maintaining physical condition QUESTION: I would like to hear more about the physical condition of collections. Do archivists have concerns about the preservation of the originals based on the materials used to manufacture them? Deteriorating paper, or possible acidic glue in bindings? Do the materials change over the years or vary from printer to printer? I understand that collections* donated by a collector are most likely to be in better condition than a Penguin I might encounter 'in the wild' today, but I'm still curious if they continue to degrade despite the care they're given. [See our links to Penguin collections at Bristol, Stirling and Oxford Brookes University Libraries]. RESPONSE: This is an interesting question, and perhaps one that also could be answered by archivists at the Special Collections in University Libraries. All books degrade a little over time, and things like humidity can affect the condition of a book. During the war, Penguin Books were produced using thinner paper (due to rationing) and were bound by metal staples - which can rust. They had thinner covers so that the books were less well protected. Finding a book 'in the wild' sounds a bit like 'pot-luck'. It depends where it has been. It could have been on a bookshelf in a book-case, perhaps not facing the sun, and be in reasonably good condition with a dust jacket - or it might have been in a box in a damp cellar and be in not very good condition. A collector of Penguin Books is less likely to think about temperature and humidity - than someone collecting first edition folios of Shakespeare! But even paperback collectors try to preserve their books, keep them out of direct sunlight, store them neatly and so on. The Library collections in Stirling and Oxford Brookes were assembled by collectors who went into ordinary second-hand bookshops and had to take what they found. A lot of this was pre-eBay and internet purchasing, and they were less old than they are now. Bristol Library archive is different, the basis of the collection came from Allen Lane himself. Book collectors also undertake an important function in preserving books. In my own research on collecting Penguin Books I noted that the subject of Book History tends to miss out collectors. "Bibliography and book history seek to understand the book (in its broadest sense) in terms of its characteristics of communication, culture and material existence, often with blurred boundaries (Howsam 2006), and for convenience simplified through use of models such as the Communications Circuit (Darnton 1982). Such models have either involved people, such as authors, publishers, distributers and readers, or been seen through the lens of systems and processes - production, publication, distribution and reception. Adams and Barker (1993) suggest that survival of the book, both in its physical existence and how it evolves into various editions, should also be a matter for book history. In this regard, collectors have importance for, in the words of Pollard (1911), they 'pick out books which they find to be still alive' (p.222). If the ultimate consumer is thought to be the reader then, as Howsam (2006) suggests, the relationship with the collector needs re-appraisal. Penguin books, flimsy and ephemeral though they were intended to be, have survived for 80 years, and Penguin book collectors read, consult and, above all else, preserve them. Book collectors merit a place in book history." Adams, T.R. and Barker, N. (1993) A New Model for the Study of the Book. In: D. Finkelstein and A. McCleery, eds. The Book History Reader. (2006) Second ed. Oxford: Routledge, pp. 47-65; and Adams, T.R. and Barker, N. eds. (1993) A Potencie of Life: Books in Society. London: The British Library. Darnton, R. (1982) What is the history of books? Daedalus, 113 (3), pp. 65 - 83. Available: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:3403038 [Accessed: 25 February 2015]. Howsam, L. (2006) Old books and new histories : an orientation to studies in book and print culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press,. Pollard, A.W. (1911) Book-Collecting. In: Hugh Chisholm, ed. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 11th Edition, Vol. 4 ed. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, pp. 221-225. Available: https://archive.org/stream/EncyclopaediaBritannicaDict.a.s.l.g.i.11thed.chisholm.1910-1911-1922.33vols/04.EncycBrit.11th.1910.v.4.BIS-CAL.#page/n240/mode/1up [Accessed: 4 April 2016]. ⇪RETURN TO TOP⇪*