Click below for books beginning with:

Numbered Books

G-series

G200

G500

H - W series

X-series

X200

X400

5-digit

02300

02600

10200

20100

23700

24700

One of the great paperback labels in the United Kingdom, Pan began operation in London in 1944. Unlike Penguin, they relied on colorful cover art to help sell their works, and thus became a favorite among collectors.

Pan attracted a great number of popular authors of the day, but they are particularly notable for two, selling paperback originals of Leslie Charteris' The Saint novels and the original James Bond books by Ian Fleming. Much later, they would produce the famous Hitchhiker books by Douglas Adams.

After WWII, the company was purchased by a consortium that included Collins, Heinemann, Hodder & Stoughton, and others; but in 1987, they became wholly owned by Macmillan. They continue to publish many of today's favorite authors.

Notes and observations by Grant Thiessen:

You can find more than you ever wished to know about Pan at https://www.tikit.net/

Pan published the following series:

- No letter 1-443 1947-1958
- E 1-22
- G 1-717 1947-1966 the first 100 numbers, plus 102, used GP before the number, 101 and 103-717 was just G. This is one sequence
there is one exception. The first book was released as G1, then reprinted as GP1 the next year.
- H 1-3
- M 1-274 1959-1968
- R 1
- T 1-53 1963-1966
- W 1
- X 1-745 1956-1968
- Z 1-2

XP 1-155 (Pan Piper) (could have a variety of different first letters (M, X, E, T, W or Z), based on price, but the second letter was always P
should be sorted by the number. Later, Pan Piper’s were part of the same 5-digit numbering system as other Pan’s, with the Piper distinction on some reprints, but not others, and even added to titles not previously identified as Pipers.

5-digit Pan numbers starting with 01 are reprints of books in the G series, by putting 01 in front of the 3-digits from the G series (see below for why 01638 and 01962 are incorrect). numbers starting with 10 are reprints of the books in the X series, by putting 10 in front of the three digit number of the associated X-series book. Books starting with 13 and 23 are all reprints from the Pan Piper series, starting with 13 or 23 and then using the 3 digit piper number. Books starting with 20, are reprints of the corresponding M series books.

Beginning in 1968, Pan did what seems like an unbroken sequence from 02000 to 02999, then sometime in 1972 they jumped to 23161, and at the same time discontinued the 10xxx’s and 20xxx’s reprints (after that date, reprints were assigned a new, unrelated number), and carried on from there, finishing the 1970’s around 25900. There are reprints with the 10xxx or 20xxx numbers after 1972, but all of those titles had already had an earlier reprint with that book number between 1968 and 1972.

Identification by date is possible to a degree by looking at the Pan identification, and shows that not all Pan books were published in strict numerical order, so book numbers must have been assigned at time to contract, most likely.

1968-1970: traditional older Pan logo, with ‘PAN” in a colored box beside the satyr, upper right corner, lower case ‘books” below “PAN”
there are a few exceptions, like some of the Pan Romances, which have a satyr at each side of “A Pan Romance” also through this, and the next group, was the “Pan Science Fiction” with the thick bisecting horizontal bottom of the “S”

1970-1971: lower case “pan books”, moved to left upper corner, beside logo

1971-1972: title case, often bold ‘Pan Books’, beside the logo

1972-79: ‘Pan’ beside or below the logo; new books starting in 1973 tended to have the ‘Pan’ below the logo, some reprints had it beside.

Use of these styles outside of the date ranges are usually where the cover was unchanged from an earlier edition which DID fall in those date ranges. There are also a number of exceptions where the actual word Pan did not appear on the cover at all, just the satyr.

Pan/Ballantine reprints of Ballantine books for the British market, used Ballantine’s ISBN of 0-345, instead of Pan’s 0-330

Lettered Pan tended to put a price on the cover. Covers without that price were usually export printings, so many of my scans do not have that price. Printing history pages are identical. Most 5-digit Pan’s had prices only on the back cover.

The most valuable of the Pan’s is the first export printing of Ian Fleming’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. (X350) The first three printings were all exported to Canada (and possibly Australia). The first printing released in England was the fourth printing, making the first printing much in demand, especially as it had a relatively low print run. Even a poor copy of this printing will sell for $300 or more

Pan used a printer in France at the beginning for the first 100 or so titles, due to paper shortages. They reverted to printing them in England in 1950. any reference in the first 100 or so, referring to France, are not unusual, they are the normal.

There are two different books numbered GP29. One of them should probably have been GP31, which otherwise does not exist.
 

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