And Again
I wonder if Allen Lane the gentleman who's brainwave created the Penguin book or Edward Preston Young the young man who was sent to London Zoo to sketch Penguins and subsequently devise the now iconic colour schemes that went onto the early book covers had any idea what they had unleashed. I think they would probably be surprised and flattered to see that today those designs and indeed the Penguin book brand has now reached cult status and continues to inspire artists and designers as well as readers and writers. The spirit of Penguin remains true, they still publish wonderful books and release quality, covetable, special editions and box sets designed beautifully with thought and attention.
Sir Allen Lane
In 1935, if you wanted to read a good book, you
needed either a lot of money or a library card. Cheap paperbacks were
available, but their poor production generally tended to mirror the
quality between the covers.
Penguin paperbacks were the brainchild of Allen Lane, then a
director of The Bodley Head. After a weekend visiting Agatha Christie in
Devon, he found himself on a platform at Exeter station searching its
bookstall for something to read on his journey back to London, but
discovered only popular magazines and reprints of Victorian novels.
Appalled by the selection on offer, Lane decided that good quality
contemporary fiction should be made available at an attractive price
and sold not just in traditional bookshops, but also in railway
stations, tobacconists and chain stores.
He also wanted a 'dignified but flippant' symbol for his new
business. His secretary suggested a Penguin and another employee was
sent to London Zoo to make some sketches. Seventy years later Penguin is
still one of the most recognizable brands in the world.
The first Penguin paperbacks appeared in the summer of 1935 and
included works by Ernest Hemingway, André Maurois and Agatha Christie.
They were colour coded (orange for fiction, blue for biography, green
for crime) and cost just sixpence, the same price as a packet of
cigarettes. The way the public thought about books changed forever - the
paperback revolution had begun.
"We believed in the existence in this country of a vast reading public for intelligent books at a low price, and staked everything on it"
Allen Lane
Edward Preston Young (Right)
"The Penguin Books are splendid value for sixpence, so splendid that if other publishers had any sense would combine against them and suppress them"
George Orwell
Dear Lane,
These Penguin Books are amazingly good value for money. If you can
make the series pay for itself - with such books at such price - you
will have performed a great publishing feat. Yours sincerely,
J. B. Priestley
"If a book is any good, the cheaper the better"
Bernard Shaw
"A Penguin could fit into a soldiers pocket or his kit bag ... it was especially prized in prison camps"
Martin Bell
Great Food Series Coralie Bickford-Smith
Penguin Cloth Hardcover Classics Coralie Bickford-Smith
Glamourous art deco inspired jackets Coralie Bickford-Smith
The Nancy Mitford Collection
The Boys Adventure Series Coralie Bickford-Smith
Puffin Childrens Hardbacked Classics
Daniela Jaglena Terrazzini
The First 10 books published, the originals are almost impossible to get hold of these are reproductions
Harland Miller, Painting hanging in Soho House LA