Penguin First Editions :: Early First Edition Penguin Books

A HAPPY NEW YEAR - 2026
PENGUIN BOOKS FROM 1935
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PENGUIN COVER CAROUSEL
with 77 images from the first 35 years of Penguin book covers
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This website provides an easy to use comprehensive resource for Penguin lovers everywhere! A unique reference site for Penguin Book collectors and researchers - with lists and images of early Penguin and vintage Penguin books. There are also Author and Title indexes and alphabetical lists of designers and translators. Plus pages on FAQs, Penguin Ephemera, Classified Booklists, Penguin News, Stocklists and Penguin Progress, lists of the Penguin Collectors Society publications and much more.

THIS YEAR we focus on the INTERNATIONAL reach of the early Penguins. During the second world war a number of projects were undertaken, 'F' ÉDITIONS PINGOUIN for the French exiles in Britain, and later 'V' ÉDITIONS PENGUIN to export to France at the end of the war.

Penguins emerged in Australia, the PENGUINS IN AUSTRALIA ('Lothians') in 1940 and the following year spread to New Zealand PENGUINS IN NEW ZEALAND 'NZ'. Later Allen Lane experimented in Australia in 1961 with the HORWITZ PENGUINS series before starting up their own office and series AUSTRALIAN PENGUIN BOOKS 'AU' in 1963.

Penguin was also in the United States of America. Soon after the United States entered the Second World War, Penguin Books (which established a base in New York in August 1940) began production of their own 'Penguin Specials'. At first the titles were taken from books already published in Britain, but the majority came from a joint project with an existing magazine Infantry Journal. FIGHTING FORCES - PENGUIN SPECIALS USA, and in 1942 branched out into a general list PENGUIN BOOKS of New York (501-659) and later, in 1946 ran their own series of Pelicans: 'P' PELICAN BOOKS. Penguin also opened an Office in Baltimore and began in 1951 with reprinting (George) Bernard Shaw's plays (GEORGE) BERNARD SHAW'S PLAYS, USA. In 1956 they followed with the US edition, edited by Alfred Harbage, of a Pelican Shakespeare series 'AB' PELICAN SHAKESPEARE (USA).

In 1942 Penguins were licenced out to W.J.Eady in Egypt, who also sold them in Palestine: EGYPTIAN PENGUINS and PALESTINE. In addition, Penguin produced two series on Africa, though printed in the UK: 'WA' WEST AFRICAN PENGUINS which commenced in 1965, and 'AP' AFRICAN LIBRARY from 1962.

This year we have introduced a new page on the PORTUGUESE PELICANS produced by Editora Ulisseia in Lisbon which commenced in 1962. 97 titles were translated from UK Penguin books into Portuguese.

Picture Puffins were published in a variety of languages. In addition to the ones from Portugal (Livros Illustrados Puffin, 6 books), they were produced in French (Collection du Vieux Chamois, 16 books), Dutch, Swedish, German , Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Arabic and Hebrew. Alianza in Spain reproduced Economics books (mostly from the Penguin Education series), and a small list of Canadian Penguins were produced during the war. There were a number of books produced in or for South America, such as the Argentinian Colleccion Pingüino or the Ediçoes Pinguim from Brazil, deserving of further attention. We hope to be able to add further pages on some of these books in due course. Finally, quite a number of original Penguin/Pelican books were taken on by overseas publishers and printed under their own imprint.

ABOUT OUR 'PENGUINFIRSTEDITIONS.COM' WEBSITE:
Work on this site first began in January 2013 and over the years we have gradually enlarged and developed the site contents.

Intended originally to cover the early Penguin Years, 1935 - 1956, we then expanded to include books published up to around 1970. With the development of the new section on Penguin Education, books from the later 1970s are also included.

This is ongoing work, with the Penguin Education 'X' series now to 1,000, and further expansion of the Penguin Classics 'L' and Peregrines 'Y' series. We have also added pages for PENGUIN OBSERVERS BOOKS and PENGUIN UNIVERSITY BOOKS (1971-4) and a new FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ) section. We recently added four pages on hardbacks - the BOUND PENGUINS series, which commenced in 1951, two pages of the 'H' prefix PENGUIN LIBRARY EDITIONS series from 1967 to 1969, and the CHIVERS PENGUIN LIBRARY EDITION series (1970 to 1972).

We would like to thank all those who have contributed ideas and suggestions, information and corrections, and additional images to help make the site more complete and definitive. Thanks are also due to the archivists at the PRH Archive for their help and in facilitating my earlier incursions into their stacks of books.

Every year some 30,000 users hop 330,000 times around our site, consulting about 120,000 times on one of our 200 pages of entries, indexes, lists and information. The vast majority are from English speaking nations: UK, USA, Australia and Canada, but we are also viewed by people from an average of 145 countries each year.

At the moment about half of our visitors view us from their desktop equipment and half now find us from their mobile devices. From wherever you come and however you view us there are over 8,600 early Penguin titles, 9,600 entries and 10,250 images to be found on this website. We hope you will enjoy your voyage of discovery.

This site is a free information resource on Penguin First Edition books (or Penguin First Impressions) - those lovely early and vintage Penguin paperbacks which have now become very collectable!

The site includes detailed lists of books, photographs and information on all of the early Penguin Books - usually thought of as the first 21 years of publishing - from 1935 to 1956, although we also list books and/or series running into the 1960s and 1970s.

You can access the various series from the WEBSITE CONTENTS.

You can also view a LIST OF ALL PENGUIN SERIES (also accessed from the pale green tab on the left) of all the books and periodicals series published by Penguin from 1935. Just click on the name in CAPITAL letters to take you to the relevant series. Each page contains information, with titles and photographs of covers. Alternatively, you can view the list in chronological order of creation at CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF SERIES
.

There is also a growing section on The HISTORY of Penguin Books.

Penguin No. 1

Penguin No. 1,000

First Pelican (A1)

This website is intended to provide a resource for those who are collecting PENGUIN BOOKS, researching PENGUIN BOOKS or are just interested or fascinated by them and want to know more. All of the series produced by Penguin are collected - and some books are much rarer than others and have become prized by the cognoscenti. Indeed, we have a page devoted to the VALUE OF PENGUIN BOOKS. Although many thousands of copies were made of most books, some have almost but disappeared - hence their rarity and high value. However, for many of us, it is that familiar look and feel that brings warmth. This web-site is for those who love PENGUIN BOOKS or simply want to find out more about them.

MAIN SERIES 1 - 3,000
The first ten were published in July 1935 and sold for 6d.(six pence) each. By 30 July 1954 Penguin had published Number 1,000. We have listed the complete run to 3,000, the final book being Ulysses by James Joyce, pubished in April 1969. The listings take the publication date to around 1970.
Penguin used the colours of the cover to signify different types of book:
Fiction were in Orange covers
Biography in Dark Blue
Crime/Detection in Green
Travel and Adventure in Cerise
Plays in Red
Miscellaneous in Yellow
Essays and Belles Lettres in a Light Purple
World Affairs in Grey.

PELICANS 1 - 1,300
Penguin published PELICANS from May 1937. These were in their familiar light blue and white covers. We list the first 1,300 which were published up to earound 1971.

KING PENGUINS
This was a very fine set of illustrated hardbacks - The KING PENGUIN series. The series began in November 1939 and the final book, number 76 was published in 1959. This series has become very collectable.

LIST OF ALL SERIES - and a link to the information

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This site would like to acknowledge the generous assistance given by Nicki Carter at the Penguin Random House Archive and Library, Rushden, with their wonderful collection of Penguin Books as part of a huge archival resource; and previously Sue Payne at Rugby.

We also wish to acknowledge the help provided by Helen Beardsley and the staff at the Archives and Special Collections section of Stirling University Library which houses the Mitchell Penguin Collection, a collection of some 3,500 Penguin Books collected by Dr Angus Mitchell (a former Chair of the University Court). [see 'Useful Links' page]

We would like to express our thanks for the help of the late Hannah Lowery, Archivist at the Special Collections, University of Bristol Library. The archive holds a large number of Penguin Books from 1935 to present day and includes some 7,800 Penguin books from the personal collection of Sir Allen Lane. [also to be found on the 'Useful Links' page]

Last year (in 2025) Penguin celebrated its 90th Anniversary. Some of the 90th Anniversary material will find its way into our website during 2026. We enjoyed our co-operation with Penguin Books and extend our thanks to Zainab Juma, Head of Brand.

PENGUIN BOOKS UK
penguinfirsteditions.com particularly wishes to acknowledge with grateful thanks the kind permission of Penguin Books Ltd. (UK) to reproduce its book covers and, where incorporated, its various logos. We would wish to point out to users of this site that, as appropriate, Penguin Books Ltd. and its designers retain their copyright and/or intellectual property in the relevant material.

Please make your selection from the menus on the left side of this page to access the information and resources - or if you prefer, you can browse the website from this sitemap.