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 BOOK WATCH
Our news from the book industry
HISTORY OF THE PAPERBACK BOOK---#3: The Unexpected Story of Penquin Books
Penguin was the first really 'respectable' paperback imprint in 1935. How did it get started? Here's the story as told by Oliver Cortlett, ABE/IOBA.
"The story goes that Allen Lane, Chairman of The Bodley Head, a London publisher, was returning by train from a weekend in the country with...Agatha Christie and her husband. ...He was looking for a way to save his troubled business. Browsing through the station kiosks for something to read...he could find nothing...but ..magazines and low-quality paperback fiction. It occured to him that good quality ficiton and nonfiction might find a wider readership if only books were more affordable, and on July 30th, 1935 introduced the Penguin imprint to an unsuspecting world."
 It was a brilliant strategy! Early Penguins had no art on the covers. The covers were, instead, solid orange, blue and green with white or black spines. Each was printed on good quality paper and cost what today would be about 4 cents each. Penguin increased the print run and took the gamble that there would be sufficient demand to sell them all. Within six months about one million Penquins had been sold and by the end of 1936 sales were over three million.
What were some of the first titles?
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (of course!)
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
We have these authors in stock today. Unfortunately, they are priced slightly higher than 4 cents each! | 
Now through DECEMBER