Who founded Penguin Books?
Penguin Books was founded by Allen Lane together with his brothers Richard and John, launching the imprint on the 30th of July 1935 out of The Bodley Head in London.
Questions about Penguin Books
Short answers, pulled from the story.
When did Penguin Books become a separate company from The Bodley Head?
Penguin Books became a company separate from The Bodley Head in 1936, after an order of 63,000 books from Woolworths paid for the project outright and proved the business could work.
Why was the Lady Chatterley's Lover trial important for Penguin Books?
The 1960 case, R v Penguin Books Ltd, tested Penguin's decision to publish Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence, a novel never before published in the United Kingdom. Penguin's win helped drive sales of at least 3.5 million copies and ended most book censorship in the UK, though censorship of the written word was not fully defeated until the Inside Linda Lovelace trial of 1978.
Who owns Penguin Books today?
Penguin Books is an imprint of Penguin Random House, which has been wholly owned by the German conglomerate Bertelsmann since April 2020. Pearson plc held a 47 per cent stake in Penguin Random House when it formed in 2013, a stake that fell to 25 per cent in July 2017.
What is the Marber grid in Penguin Books cover design?
The Marber grid was a paperback cover design suggested by designer Romek Marber and adopted by Penguin under Germano Facetti in the early 1960s. It replaced Penguin's earlier three band horizontal grid and set the pattern for the company's paperbacks for the next twenty years.
What was the Penguin Books Forces Book Club during the Second World War?
The Forces Book Club was a 1941 deal between Penguin and the War Office in which Penguin received 60 tons of paper a month from Paper Supply. In exchange, Penguin produced 10 titles a month in print runs of 75,000 copies, priced at fivepence each, for the armed forces.