I have some Puffin/Pelican/other Bird Name books, are these published by Penguin?
The quick answer:
Generally anything with the word Penguin, Puffin or Pelican is a book published by Penguin; there are several different series within each of these brands. In addition the names Porpoise, Ptarmigan and Peregrine are also published by Penguin.
Generally anything with the word Penguin, Puffin or Pelican is a book published by Penguin; there are several different series within each of these brands. In addition the names Porpoise, Ptarmigan and Peregrine are also published by Penguin.
The slow answer:
Penguin books have published under many different banners, some of which were developed in-house and some which were bought, like the 2002 purchase of the Rough Guide books. The in-house developed series tend to keep the bird theme and while there is much to be applauded in the more recent publications, the Society's interest naturally tends towards the early series and the early to mid twentieth-century book design.
In the first 30 years of Penguin books, there were 80 different series, and as well as official Penguin publications there is a large amount of ephemera connected to both Penguin Books and the Lane brothers. This is, therefore, not an exhaustive list of these early Penguin Series, but it does contain the best known series and is a good place to start in order to begin to understand the wide-ranging focus of Penguin publications and find out if the books you own are published by Penguin. The letter codes used here are those developed and used by Penguin for the different series they published.
Penguin books have published under many different banners, some of which were developed in-house and some which were bought, like the 2002 purchase of the Rough Guide books. The in-house developed series tend to keep the bird theme and while there is much to be applauded in the more recent publications, the Society's interest naturally tends towards the early series and the early to mid twentieth-century book design.
In the first 30 years of Penguin books, there were 80 different series, and as well as official Penguin publications there is a large amount of ephemera connected to both Penguin Books and the Lane brothers. This is, therefore, not an exhaustive list of these early Penguin Series, but it does contain the best known series and is a good place to start in order to begin to understand the wide-ranging focus of Penguin publications and find out if the books you own are published by Penguin. The letter codes used here are those developed and used by Penguin for the different series they published.
Series Code | Series Names | Information |
---|---|---|
Main Series | Fiction: the first 10 books were published on 30 July 1935. The covers were colour coded by genre. | |
A | Pelican Books | Non-Fiction: the first Pelican was published in 1937. |
AB | Pelican Shakespeare | |
AC | Pelican Classics | |
ACO | English Language Book Society | |
AL | Allen Lane the Penguin Press | |
AP | Penguin African Library | |
AU | Australian Editions | |
B | Penguin Shakespeare | Drama: 37 volumes published between 1937 and 1959 containing the complete works of Shakespeare. |
BE | Buildings of England | |
BP | Baby Puffins | Children: 9 books published for very young children between 1943 and 1948. |
C | Penguin Illustrated Classics | |
CAF | Contemporary American Fiction | |
D | Penguin Poets | |
E | (1) The Things We See | |
E | (2) Planning Design and Art Books | |
EL | Penguin English Library | |
F | Editions Pingouin | |
FR | Penguin Film Review | |
G | Penguin Guides | |
H | (1) Penguin Hansard | |
H | (2) Horwitz editions | |
Hxxx | Library Editions | |
J | Porpoise Books | Children: 4 hardback books published in 1948. |
K/KP | King Penguin Books | Non-Fiction: 76 colour illustrated hardback books published between 1939 and 1959. |
L | Penguin Classics | |
MM | Penguin Music Magazine | |
MP | Penguin Modern Painters | |
N | New Observer's Books | |
NB | New Biology | |
NP | Penguin Modern Playwrights | |
NS | New Penguin Shakespeare | |
P | Pelican Books USA | |
PA | Topolski Prints | |
PC | Puffin Cut-Out Books | Children: a small number of cut-out model-making books published between 1947 and 1953. Unusual to find 'uncut'. |
PD | Penguin Parade | |
PE | Puffin Explorers | |
PH | Penguin Handbooks | |
PK | Peacock Books | |
PL | Penguin Plays | |
PMC | Penguin Modern Classics | |
PNW | Penguin New Writing | |
PP | Puffin Picture Books | Children: Penguin's first children's series, 120 larger-format titles published between 1940 and 1965. |
PR | Penguin Prints | |
PS | Puffin Story Books | Children Fiction: Penguin's main series for children first published in 1941. |
PT | Ptarmigan Books | Children: a series of 9 books containing games, quizzes and puzzles published between 1945 and 1947. |
PX | Picture Puffins | |
PZ | Pelican History of Art paperbacks | |
Q | Miscellaneous | Non-Fiction: a mix of books that did not belong anywhere else, first published in 1942. |
R | Penguin Reference Books | |
S | Penguin and Pelican Specials | |
SC | Penguin Scores | |
SE | Services Editions | |
SH | Penguin History of Britain | |
SL/PSL | Penguin Shakespeare Library | |
SN | Science News | |
T | Transatlantic | |
V | Editions Penguin | |
WA | Penguin West African Series/African Series | |
X | Penguin Education | |
Y | Peregrine Books | Education: academic books, published between 1962 and 1989. |
Z | Pelican History of Art | Non-Fiction: originally large, hardbacks with dustwrappers and, initially, cardboard slip-cases; later reissued in paperback; first published in 1953. |