NonUS-penguin

Recognized as the first successful mass-market paperback publisher in an English-speaking country, Penguin was formed in London in 1935 by Allen Lane, who worked for The Bodley Head, a hardcover publisher.

In the beginning, the books lacked any cover art at all other than the colophon. They were color-coded: Orange for fiction, green for thrillers, blue for adventure, red for biographies and a few yellow books for miscellaneous other topics.

And as for that Penguin colophon: well, since it was the only thing on the cover, you'd think they'd show it a little more respect. It went through numerous subtle drawing changes, sometimes facing left and sometimes right, sometimes spreading its pointy little wings, and sometimes doing a little dance. In a few cases, it split into two, dancing off in opposite directions.

That didn't last forever, of course, as competitors grew more and more numerous and offered good (and often very good) cover illustrations to lure away customers. Since Penguin used the same book numbers for reprints, you will see many incidences of book numbers with and without illustrated covers.

Since Penguin has been around the longest, there is much more to tell regarding the books themselves. Below, please read some excerpts from an email by Grant Thiessen, owner of BookIt.com.

The books that start with "C" were to indicate crime novels, and this was used for a relatively short time (late 1963-early 1969). For many titles, the same book number was used both before and after the years when "C" was used. Or a first printing might have the "C", but printings after 1969 dropped it.

Penguin Books starting with "PK" are part of the Peacock imprint, which WAS owned by Penguin, but had its own numbering sequence (about 150 titles, ending in 1979). Books starting with "PS" are part of the Puffin imprint, which was owned by Penguin, but had its own numbering sequence (100’s, if not 1000’s of titles, still publishing today). Books starting with "A" are part of the Pelican imprint, which was owned by Penguin, but had its own numbering sequence (well over 1000 titles, ending in 1984). (NOTE: I have tried to move all of those scans into the Peacock, Puffin & Pelican sections in the NON-US folder of BookScans. -Bruce)

Penguin books were numbered starting from 1, with no letter prefix, except for #425 numbered A425, and the crime books from 1963-1966 which were preceded by a C. When they went to ISBN’s, the numbers were preceded by enough zeroes to make a 6-digit number. (Pelicans were preceded by 02, puffins by 03, and special series like the ones below, with 04, 05, and 08. other prefixes in the Isbn era were used after 1979)

In addition, Penguin had the following lettered series

· AP = African Library (1962-1975, 46 titles)

· B = Penguin Shakespeare (1937-1959, 37 titles)

· BE = buildings of England (1951-1974, 46 titles)

· C = Illustrated Classics (1938, 10 titles)

· D = Penguin Poets and/or Penguin Modern European Poets later in format 042xxx (1941-1962, 61 titles)

· E = Things we see (1947-1950, E1-7), Planning Design and Art (1942-1951, E31-39, but no E38)

· EL = English Library later issues in format 043xxx (1965-?, 66 titles)

· G = Penguin Guides (1939-1960, 18 titles)

· H = Penguin Hansard (1940-1942, 6 titles)

· L = Penguin Classics later issues in the format 044xxx (1946-?, at least 175 titles)

· NP = Modern Playwrights (1966-1970,11 titles)

· PH = Penguin Handbook later issues in the format 046xxx (1945-?, 100’s of titles)

· PL = Penguin Plays later issues in format 048xxx (1959-197xm at least 100 titles)

· PT = Penguin Ptarmigan (1945-1947, 9 titles)

· Q = miscellaneous (1938-?, at least 50 titles)

· R = Penguin Reference later in format 051xxx (1944-198x, at least 60 titles)

· S = Penguin Special later in format 052xxx (1937-1988, at least 300 titles)

· SE = services edition (15 titles)

· X = Penguin Education, late reprints in the format 08xxx (and some others which I have never seen copies of)

and these other numbered series:

Penguin New Writing #1 was #305 in the main series, 2-40 were not part of the main series.

Penguin Parade #1 was #120 in the main series, 2-11 were not part of the main series.

Science News 54 volumes in their own series.

Film Review 9 volumes in their own series.

New Biology 31 volumes in their own series.

Penguin Modern Painters (1944-1959, 1-20, no #18) followed by Penguin New Art (1971, 21-24) .

They also issued the occasional “Classified Lists” starting in 1946, which were lists of available titles sorted by subject matter (in paperback format).

- Grant Thiessen

The cover scan above is courtesy of Grant Thiessen

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