Penguin Books

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | 700+ words | Copyright

Penguin Books, the name first given to a series of paperback books published in 1935 by A. Lane, and established as a publishing company in 1936. The first ten titles, which sold for sixpence each, included Ariel by Maurois (No. 1), and fiction by A. Christie, Hemingway, D. L. Sayers, and M. Webb. In 1937 the non-fiction Pelican series was launched and Puffin Picture Books for children followed in 1940. Other notable ventures include the Penguin Classics, edited for many years by E. V. Rieu (1887–1972), whose own translation of the Odyssey (1946) was its first and best-selling volume; and the first unexpurgated edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover (1960), which led to a celebrated trial and acquittal at the Old Bailey.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Penguin Books." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Penguin Books." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-PenguinBooks.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Penguin Books." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-PenguinBooks.html

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