Comments on: The First Hundred Penguin Books https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/05/29/the-first-hundred-penguin-books-i/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Sun, 04 Jun 2023 18:25:23 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 By: Paula Carr https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/05/29/the-first-hundred-penguin-books-i/#comment-1511155 Sun, 04 Jun 2023 18:25:23 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=195940#comment-1511155 There’s just something so appealing about these early Penguin books, and it goes far beyond their content. I have a number of the green murder mysteries, but sadly have little shelf space for more. I enjoy your century collection!

]]> By: Jean@Howling Frog https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/05/29/the-first-hundred-penguin-books-i/#comment-1510772 Wed, 31 May 2023 04:05:34 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=195940#comment-1510772 Oh, lovely! I would be thrilled to get a look at them. Being a US resident I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any of those first copies. I have one post-war Penguin that looks similar but isn’t quite the same. (What I like to collect are the Anchor paperbacks from the 50s — Edward Gorey did the covers for them at the start of his career.)

]]> By: Anita McKelvey https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/05/29/the-first-hundred-penguin-books-i/#comment-1510729 Tue, 30 May 2023 15:40:11 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=195940#comment-1510729 Your story and collection of vintage paperbacks struck a chord! I wasted no time checking out my bookshelves and discovered similar fragile paperbacks by extinct American publishers such as Charles Boni of NY, Seal Books by Modern Age Books, Inc., Vintage Books and even a U. S. Penguin Book, #568, “Night Flight” by Antoine de St. Exupery! Books were printed between the 1930s-1950s.

Some years ago, the Philadelphia Athenaeum hosted an exhibit of its mid-19th century collection of Yellowbacks, reprints of popular books, inexpensively mass produced and sold for pennies at railway stations throughout Britain. Such books today are of great value to collectors. Emory University in Atlanta, GA, has digitized more than 1200 titles from its collection. Free downloads! Enjoy! https://yellowbacks.digitalscholarship.emory.edu/

]]> By: Arabella Warner https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/05/29/the-first-hundred-penguin-books-i/#comment-1510726 Tue, 30 May 2023 14:17:15 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=195940#comment-1510726 What a wonderful collection and what a lovely story.
You write so amusingly and with such humility

]]> By: Steve Loreck https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/05/29/the-first-hundred-penguin-books-i/#comment-1510716 Tue, 30 May 2023 12:22:31 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=195940#comment-1510716 My collecting passion is the Britain in Pictures series published by William Collins from the start of World War II into the 1950’s. Among these 100 plus books are works by George Orwell, Graham Greene, and Vita Sackville-West. They are short books (48 pages), with color and black and white prints. We are still missing about 20 of them and are an excuse to visit second hand book shops wherever we travel. We have found them in New Zealand, Canada, the US, and all over the UK.

]]> By: Eugene Gannon https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/05/29/the-first-hundred-penguin-books-i/#comment-1510709 Mon, 29 May 2023 10:39:40 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=195940#comment-1510709 One man’s search for Penguins in the UK. That is a great story.

]]> By: James Brown https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/05/29/the-first-hundred-penguin-books-i/#comment-1510708 Mon, 29 May 2023 10:38:03 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=195940#comment-1510708 This is an interesting and short history of penguin paperback books.
https://youtu.be/yLZuniPjEdw

I have rather too many of the green ‘whodunits’ all roughly in the same condition as yours 🙂

]]> By: Cherub https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/05/29/the-first-hundred-penguin-books-i/#comment-1510707 Mon, 29 May 2023 10:24:32 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=195940#comment-1510707 I have a collection of the tiny 60p books Penguin brought out in the 90s that were excerpts from famous works. I shipped them to Switzerland from Scotland and they are in my hall.

]]> By: Bernie https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/05/29/the-first-hundred-penguin-books-i/#comment-1510705 Mon, 29 May 2023 10:23:53 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=195940#comment-1510705 What strikes me most strongly about this post is the almost unbelievable and complimentary things it tells us (as if we did not already know) about the Gentle Author’s personality. To me, the story of how, as a young person, he travelled the country in search of somewhere to settle is so far from “normal” that it can be seen in retrospect as a pointer to the unique magic of this blog. Dear GA, you will not welcome such a panegyric, but I think one is well justified and wish that I really could do justice to the case.

]]> By: Elaine Graybill https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/05/29/the-first-hundred-penguin-books-i/#comment-1510702 Mon, 29 May 2023 10:01:01 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=195940#comment-1510702 What a wonderful story. Fascinating for a lover of literature and books. Thank you. And thank you for the photo of the books.

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