 "The Independent (London, England)")
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Books: Flight of the golden bird; Penguin Special: Life and Times of Allen Lane By Jeremy Lewis VIKING pounds 25 (484pp) pounds 22.50 (free p&p) from 0870 079 8897.(Features)
From:
The Independent (London, England)
| Date:
May 13, 2005| Author:
| COPYRIGHT 2005 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information
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Byline: Andrew Rosenheim
As literature's midwives, publishers rarely merit a biography. Allen Lane is an exception, not because he is a household name, but because he founded Penguin Books, which has shaped Britain's literary landscape and affected the social history of the nation.
Lane was born Allen Williams, and changed his surname when he left school at 16 to work for a distant cousin, John Lane, founder of the venerable publisher Bodley Head. Here, the younger Lane learnt the publishing business from the bottom up, and his apprenticeship in all the details of ...
