: Early First Edition Penguin Books :: penguinfirsteditions.com (original) (raw)

Welcome to PENGUIN FIRST EDITIONS

The largest Penguin Book Reference Site on the Web

☆ Over 200 pages of information: lists of books, indexes, cover designers and translators, and other material, with over 8,900 entries and over 9,400 images. WEBSITE CONTENTS

☆ We now have complete AUTHOR and TITLE Indexes (pink and lilac tabs/links on left)
☆ We have fully comprehensive lists of over 1,300 Designers, Illustrators, Artists and Photographers who created or are featured on Penguin BOOK COVERS (light blue tab/link on left)
☆ And complete lists of over 350 TRANSLATORS (yellow tab/link on left)
☆ There is now a new FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section with some questions from our mailbag (purple tab/link on left)
☆ NEW - We have just added the first of several planned pages on hardbacks - the 'BOUND PENGUINS' series, which commenced in 1951.

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2024 A year for reflection and hope Next year, 2025, sees Penguin celebrate 90 years of publishing. Over the years since 1935, though the company has grown, been taken over and merged, the name 'Penguin' has remained at the forefront because of its iconic branding. This was both the vision and the legacy of its founder, Allen Lane. You can see more about the HISTORY OF PENGUIN BOOKS here.

However, the iconic branding did not prevent one or two unusual series from appearing.

In 1961 Allen Lane did a deal with Horwitz, an Australian publisher of pulp fiction, to print some of Penguin's list. These books had rather garish covers to appeal to a popular readership, a format which had previously been understood to be contrary to Allen Lane's taste in book covers. Penguin claimed that this was a marketing experiment which aimed to reach the mass market. They were sold through cornershops and newsagents. The erarliest Penguin title was Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man, originally publshed as number 14 in October 1935. See HORWITZ PENGUINS (Australia) 1961-3

In 1965 Penguin supported a move to 'new mathematics' by printing copies of what was called 'The Shropshire Mathematics Experiment'. It was meant to be a 'work in progress' project with book revisions generated by feedback from teachers and pupils. The project was the inspiration of Raymond Sydney Heritage, a mathematics lecturer at a teachers training college, and he was the principal author of all the books in the series. These books then became part of the Penguin Education series a couple of years into the project. See THE SHROPSHIRE MATHEMATICS EXPERIMENT

In 1982 Penguin took over the Frederick Warne publishing house. Its titles included not only well-known children's fiction such as the books of Beatrix Potter, but also the non-fiction Observer's series. Penguin attempted to revitalise it with new and updated volumes such as 'N5' Observer's Warships by Hugh W. Cowin in 1987. See PENGUIN (NEW) OBSERVER BOOKS, 1987-9

WEBSITE: Work on this site first began in January 2013 and over the years we have gradually enlarged and developed the site contents.

Intended originally to cover the early Penguin Years, 1935 - 1956, we then expanded to include books published up to around 1970. With the development of the new section on Penguin Education, books from the later 1970s are also included.

This is ongoing work, with the Penguin Education 'X' series now to 1,000, and further expansion of the Penguin Classics 'L' and Peregrines 'Y' series. We also added pages for PENGUIN OBSERVER BOOKS and PENGUIN UNIVERSITY BOOKS (1971-4) to our website, and recently added a new FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ) section.

We have just added the first of several planned pages on hardbacks - BOUND PENGUINS .

We would like to thank all those who have contributed ideas and suggestions, information and corrections, and additional images to help make the site more complete and definitive. Thanks are also due to the archivists at the PRH Archive for their help and in facilitating my earlier incursions into their stacks of books.

Every year some 25-30,000 users hop 270,000 times around our site, consulting about 100,000 times on one of our 200 pages of entries, indexes, lists and information. The vast majority are from English speaking nations: UK, USA, Australia and Canada, but we are also viewed by people from an average of 145 countries each year.

At the moment about half of our visitors view us from their desktop equipment and half now find us from their mobile devices. From wherever you come and however you view us there are over 8,000 early Penguin titles, 8,900 entries and 9,400 images to be found on this website. We hope you will enjoy your voyage of discovery.

This website provides an easy to use comprehensive resource for Penguin lovers everywhere! A unique reference site for Penguin Book collectors and researchers - with lists and images of early Penguin and vintage Penguin books. There are also Author and Title indexes and alphabetical lists of designers and translators. Plus pages on FAQs, Penguin Ephemera, Classified Booklists, Penguin News, Stocklists and Penguin Progress, lists of the Penguin Collectors Society publications and much more.

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This site is a free information resource on Penguin First Edition books (or Penguin First Impressions) - those lovely early and vintage Penguin paperbacks which have now become very collectable!

The site includes detailed lists of books, photographs and information on all of the early Penguin Books - usually thought of as the first 21 years of publishing - from 1935 to 1956, although we also list books and/or series running into the 1960s and 1970s.

You can access the various series from the WEBSITE CONTENTS.

LIST OF ALL PENGUIN SERIES
You can also view a list of all the 'PENGUIN SERIES' (also accessed from the green tab on the left) of all the books and periodicals series published by Penguin from 1935. In the list you will find those series already included in our data-base are entered in CAPITAL letters. Just click on that to take you to the relevant series. Each page contains information, with titles and photographs of covers. Alternatively, you can view the list in chronological order of creation at CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF SERIES
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There is also a growing section on The HISTORY of Penguin Books.

This website is intended to provide a resource for those who are collecting PENGUIN BOOKS, researching PENGUIN BOOKS or are just interested or fascinated by them and want to know more. It should be of help to researchers and collectors. All of the series produced by Penguin are collected - and some books are much rarer than others and have become prized by the cognoscenti. Although many thousands of copies were made of most books, some have almost but disappeared - hence their rarity and high value. However, for many of us, it is that familiar look and feel that brings warmth. This web-site is for those who love PENGUIN BOOKS or simply want to find out more about them.