Book Description

Founded by Allen Lane in 1935, Penguin Books soon became the most read publisher in the United Kingdom and was synonymous with the British paperback. Making high quality reading cheaply available to millions, Penguin helped democratise reading. In so doing, Penguin played an important part in the cultural and intellectual life of the English speaking world. For this book, which has its origins in the successful international conference held at Bristol University in 2010 to mark 75 years of Penguin Books, recognised scholars from different fields examine various aspects of Penguin’s significance and achievement. David Cannadine and Simon Eliot offer wide historical perspectives of Penguin’s place and impact. Other scholars, including Alistair McCleery, Kimberley Reynolds, Andrew Sanders, Claire Squires, Susie Harries, Andrew Nash, Tom Boll and William John Lyons examine more particularised subjects. These range from the breaking of the Lady Chatterley ban to the visions of the future contained in Puffin Books; from Penguin Classics to the scholarly and commercial interests in publishers’ anniversaries; from the art and architectural histories of Nikolaus Pevsner to the art and design of Penguin covers; and from the translation of poetry to the transcription of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Together the essays depict much of what it was that made Penguin the most important British publishing house of the twentieth century.