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PENGUINS PROGRESS





THIS PAGE Penguins Progress 1936-40 and 1946-51 (1 - 14)






PENGUINS PROGRESS is not the title of a series of books published by Penguin. It is infact the title of their publicity booklet and in-house magazine which was first published Christmas 1936. It was initially an eight-page, penguin book size leaflet. Six further issues were produced before the war. One edition 'First War Number' was produced early in 1940. However, due to paper rationing the magazine was not published after this until 1946.

The magazine finally re-appeared in July 1946 after promises by Allen Lane to issue it. See below the letter sent on 1st April 1946. In the 'meantime', Penguin sent its booksellers a copy of Ten Years of Penguins, an account of the first ten years of Penguin Books, which appeared in the trade magazine The Bookseller in 1945.

Penguins Progress was issued between 1946 and 1951. It was produced in booklet format with the size of 7" x 4¼", and was initially 48 pages in length. 14 issues of 'Penguins Progress' were issued, all with the same format, except for number six, which was produced in leaflet form (resembling a small newspaper) with a size of 8¾" x 7¼"

In addition to the trade, Penguins Progress was sent free of charge to over 50,000 readers who requested it.

Note: Penguins Progress was also the title given to the quaint volume produced in 1960 to mark the 25th Anniversary (Silver Jubilee) of Penguin Books. It was issued as Q25 and has wonderful illustrations by many of the leading Penguin illustrators of the time, as well as giving a delightful insight into the operation of Penguin books.

We are grateful for permission to reproduce the 'contents' of the Penguins Progress publications. The data was originally researched and collected by Linda Lloyd Jones in preparation for the Fifty Penguin Years exhibition and book to mark the 50th anniversary of Penguin Books in 1985. The material was re-catalogued by Rachel Hassall (2009) for the Penguin Archive Project, University of Bristol Library. Additional material has since been added by us.

Information and cover photographs of Penguins Progress Series:


Title: LIST OF BOOKS TO BE PUBLISHED AT THE BODLEY HEAD IN SPRING 1936
Designed: by Edward Young
Date published: Spring 1936
Publisher: Bodley Head
Pages: 32pp. + covers
Printer: The Favil Press Ltd
Contents include: An advertisement for "New 'Penguins'" nos. 1-40.
Images reproduced from a photocopy of the original

The second image shows the Title page
Penguins Progress
FIRST SERIES



Title/Date: PENGUINS PROGRESS: CHRISTMAS 1936
Publisher: John Lane, the Bodley Head Ltd
Pages: 8pp.
Printer: The Vase Press Ltd
Size: 18cm x 12cm
Contents include: A complete list of Penguin Book titles published by The Bodley Head to Christmas 1936.

Title: PENGUINS MARCH INTO APRIL 1937
Date published: April 1937
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Pages: 16pp + covers
Printer: The Vase Press Ltd
Size: 4⅛" x 5⅛"
Contents include: List of new Penguin, Penguin Shakespeare, and Pelican titles.
Image reproduced from a photocopy of the original
Penguins Progress
Title/Date: PENGUINS PROGRESS: MAY 1937
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth
Pages:
Printer: The Vase Press Ltd
Size: 4⅜" x 7"
Contents include: '100 Not Out'. Announcing the publication of the 100th Penguin Book, Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in The World. Production of a limp cloth case available from booksellers for covering Penguin books.
Image reproduced from a photocopy of the original
Penguins Progress
Title/Date: PENGUINS PROGRESS: AUTUMN 1937
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth
Pages: 12pp.
Printer: The Vase Press Ltd
Size 24cm x 18cm
Contents include: Articles about Maurois's biography of Disraeli; Liddell Hart on Foch; announcement of The Great Victorians series; extracts from Professor Harold J. Laski's Liberty in the Modern State; article about Professor J.B. S. Haldane's The Inequality of Man; extract from Fabre's Social Life in the Insect World; advertisement for 'Penguin Parade'; Noel Coward recommends While Rome Burn's and Rebecca West agrees; and advertisement for sending Penguins as Christmas presents.
Images reproduced from a photocopy of the original

The second image shows the special Christmas Label, available at 3d. per dozen
Penguins Progress
Title/Date: PENGUINS PROGRESS: MAY 1938
Illustrated: by George Oliver
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth
Pages: 16pp.
Printer: The Vase Press Ltd
Size 24cm x 18cm
Contents include: announcement of the Penguin Illustrated Classics series; article introducing the team of Penguin artists (Robert Gibbings, Helen Binyon, Gwendoline Raverat, Douglas Percy Bliss, Ethelbert White, Iain Macnab, J.R. Biggs, Gertrude Hermes and Theodore Nash); four new Penguin Specials.
Image reproduced from a photocopy of the original
Penguins Progress
Title/Date: PENGUINS PROGRESS: WINTER 1938
Illustrated: by George Oliver
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth
Pages: 8pp.
Printer: The Vase Press Ltd
Size 36cm x 25cm (newspaper/broadsheet style)
Contents include: Includes announcements of Virginia Woolf's The Uncommon Critic; A.N. Whitehead's Science and the Modern World; The Century's Poetry 1837-1937 edited by D. Kilham Roberts; Beatrice Webb's My Apprenticeship; G.D.H. Cole's Socialism and Evolution; Howard Coster appointed official photographer of Penguin authors; Penguin Specials: The Press by Wickham Steed, Warning from the West by W.M. Macmillan, Literary Taste by Arnold Bennett, The Great Illusion - Now by Norman Angell, The Jewish Problem by Louis Golding, Mowrer in China by Edgar Ansel Mowrer, Britain by Mass-Observation, Design by Anthony Bertram, Ourselves and Germany by Lord Londonderry, and What Hitler Wants by E.O. Lorimer; Blue Angels and Whales by Robert Gibbings; bookcases for Penguins.


The second image shows the back cover
Penguins Progress
Title/Date: PENGUINS PROGRESS: EARLY SPRING 1939
Illustrated: by George Oliver
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth
Pages: 16pp.
Printer: The Vase Press Ltd
Size 36cm x 25cm
Contents include: article by C.L.S about John Fothergill; advertisement for Penguin Guides edited by L. Russell Muirhead; advertisement for Penguin Specials: China Struggles for Unity by J.M.D. Pringle, Between Two Wars? By Vigilantes (K. Zilliacus), You and the Refugee by Norman Angell and Dorothy Frances Buxton, Why War? by C.E.M. Joad, Britain's Health based on P.E.P report, Germany-What Next?, One Man Against Europe by Konrad Heiden.
Image reproduced from a photocopy of the original
Penguins Progress
Title/Date: PENGUINS PROGRESS: SUMMER 1939
Cover illustration: a 'Kodak Snapshot'
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth
Pages: 2 large sheets, 2 sides each folded into 16pp. 32pp. in total
Printer: The Vase Press Ltd
Size: Each sheet approximately 15" x 19¾"; each page 5" x 7½"
Contents include: articles about Penguin Guides edited by L. Russell Muirhead; Allen Lane; Penguin Parade; Penguin Specials: The Attack from Within by Elwyn Jones, Poland by Professor W.J. Rose, The New German Empire by Dr F. Borkenau, Our Food Problem by F.Le Gros Clark and R.M. Titmuss; Penguin Shakespeare; Microbes by the Million by Dr Hugh Nicol; an interview with George Bernard Shaw; an interview with William Saroyan; suggested holiday reading for the Territorial Army Camp, cruising, yachting, holiday camp, cycling , fishing, hiking, by the sea, going abroad and camping.


The publication was produced on two large sheets of paper, printed on each side and folded 8 times, to produce 16 pages on each sheet, 32 in total. The second image shows part of one of the sheets.


This was the last 'Penguins Progress' to be produced before the Second World War.
Penguins Progress
Title: PENGUINS PROGRESS: 'FIRST WAR NUMBER'
Date Published: contents appears to indicate early 1940 (probably between February and April 1940)
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth
Pages: 24pp.
Printer: Wyman and Sons Ltd
Size: 12.2cms x 18.5cms
Contents include: Our War Aims, The King Penguins, Books for the Forces, Penguins arrive in America, Latest Penguins and Pelicans, Two Specials by D. N. Pritt, K.C., M.P., A History in One Hundred Cartoons by Low, etc.

The other images show: the back page; the promotion of King Penguins (with, strangely, the order of Books 1 and 2 reversed); one of the two colour inserts showing illustrations in King Penguins; and a double page with 'Our War Aims' and 'Penguins Arrive in America'.

This is the only known issue of 'Penguins Progress' to be produced during the Second World War.

Images and information courtesy of Gerd Zimmermann
Letter
Letter
Title: LETTER FROM ALLEN LANE TO BOOKSELLERS
Date: 1st April 1946

Letter from Allen Lane announcing that Penguins Progress was scheduled to be produced in July 1946 and, in the meantime, sent a copy of 'Ten Years of Penguins 1935-1945'.


Title: TEN YEARS OF PENGUINS 1935 - 1945
Text: Three articles which appeared in The Bookseller in Autumn 1945
Cover design: by H. Weissenborn
Date Published: 1946
Pages: 24pp.
Printer: Hazell, Watson and Viney Ltd
Penguins Progress 1
SECOND SERIES



No.: 1
Title: PENGUINS PROGRESS Volume 1 [July 1946]
Illustrated: sketches by Patricia Stapenhorst (Patricia Morriss)
Date Published: Summer 1946
Pages: 48pp.
Printer: The Vase Press Ltd
Contents include: articles about Pelicans in America; George Bernard Shaw's 90th birthday and the publication of 100,000 copies of ten of Shaw's books; The Diary of a Nobody; Penguin Guide to the Sciences; Penguin Film Review; The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford; Appointment in Samarrai by Somerset Maugham; Elizabeth Bowen; Rex Warner; L.H. Myers; William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury; James Aitken; Fountains in the Sand by Norman Douglas; Traveller from Tokyo by John Morris; Russia Today; Fishlore by A.F. Magri MacMabon; Common Wild Flowers by Dr John Hutchinson; The Penguin Handyman by Foster Wiseman; Preserves for all Occasions by Alice Crang; The Penguin Modern Painter series edited by Sir Kenneth Clark; The Penguin Classics series edited by E.V. Rieu.
Penguins Progress 2
No.: 2
Title: PENGUINS PROGRESS Volume 2
Illustrated: sketches by Patricia Stapenhorst (Patricia Morriss)
Date Published: October 1946
Pages: 48pp.
Printer: The Vase Press Ltd
Contents include: Includes articles on a request for new history books; books for Europe; H.G. Wells and the publication of 100,000 copies of ten of H.G. Wells' volumes; Mr Cooper's book on the Nuremberg Trials; The Anatomy of Peace by Emery Reves; Hiroshima by John Hersey; Science News; The Englishman Builds by Ralph Tubbs; The Anatomy of the Village by Thomas Sharp; The Things we See; series, 'Translating the Classics' by E.V. Rieu; Music Quarterlies; Music Magazine; home binding.
Penguins Progress 3
No.: 3
Title: PENGUINS PROGRESS Volume 3
Designed and illustrated: by Ruari McLean
Date Published: Christmas 1946
Pages: 48pp.
Printer: The Vase Press Ltd
Contents include: articles about the cost of producing books; the National Book League Exhibition of British Book Illustration; The Science of Seeing being the first shilling Pelican to have a full colour plate; the King Penguin edition of A Christmas Carol; Dragons are Extra by Major Lewis Hastings; Penguin detective stories; children's books; the King Penguin series; Robert Louis Stevenson; The Nuremberg Trials by R.W. Cooper; Penguin Hansard; The Anatomy of Peace; John Citizen and the Law by Ronald Rubinstein; the Music Magazine.
Penguins Progress 4
No.: 4
Title: PENGUINS PROGRESS Volume 4
Designed and illustrated: by Ruari McLean
Date Published: Easter 1947
Pages: 64pp.
Printer: The Vase Press Ltd
Contents include: articles about double volumes; an increase in printing, binding and distribution costs; The Tragic Comedians by George Meredith; Gryll Grange by Thomas Love Peacock; a Brontë centenary; Penguin green crime covers; awards made to Penguin in the National Book League's 1947 Exhibition of Book Design; The Warden by Anthony Trollope; The Child of Jago; A Narrow Street; Henry James; Arnold Bennett; Adam and Eve and Pinch Me; Graham Greene; Anson's Voyage Round the World; John Citizen and the Law; The World's Wealth by W.G. Moore; Climbing in Britain by J.E.Q. Barford; revised editions of the Penguin Guides to England and Wales series; England's Green and Pleasant Land; English Letters of the 19th Century by James Aitken; Penguin Parade - Second Series; The Penguin Shakespeare; Thomas Bewick, King Penguin edition; Flowers of the Woods by Sir Edward Salisbury;Ur - The First Phases by Sir Leonard Woolley; A History of English Clocks.
Penguins Progress 5
No.: 5
Title: PENGUINS PROGRESS Volume 5
Designed: by Jan Tschichold
Date Published: September 1947
Pages: 32pp.
Printer: The Vase Press Ltd
Contents include: article about five leading publishers (Chatto and Windus, Faber and Faber, Hamish Hamilton, Heinemann and Michael Joseph) having assigned to Penguin Books the paper-bound reprint rights of several of the titles; the new Penguin and Pelican double volume emblems; Jan Tschichold joining Penguin Books; Labour Marches On by John Parker; The Case for Conservatism by Quentin Hogg; Ben Shahn in Penguin Modern Painters series; Penguins in foreign languages; Puffin Cut-Out Books; new King Penguins; 'Mass Production and the Art of the Book' by Oliver Simon; The First Eighteen Months; Russian Icons; 'Humour and G.K. Chesterton' by Jeanne Lindley.
Penguins Progress 6
No.: 6
Title: PENGUINS PROGRESS Volume 6
Date Published: July 1948
Pages: 32pp.
Printer: The Vase Press Ltd
Printed in leaflet/newspaper style format Contents include: news about subscriptions to Penguin periodicals; an arrangement with Agatha Christie and her publishers, Williams Collins, for a special issue of ten of her best crime titles; arrangements to distribute in the UK the publications of the Museum of Modern Art of New York; Penguins Australia; 'Three out of Five' by W.E. Williams; Penguin Prints; 'A hundred thousand years each way'; an analysis of titles published since the last issues of Penguins Progress; 'Choosing Puffins': Eleanor Graham discusses the qualities she looks for in planning children's books; 'Shakespeare: was he human?' by Ivor Brown; Penguins abroad.
Penguins Progress 7
No.: 7
Title: PENGUINS PROGRESS Volume 7
Illustrated: includes illustrations by George Oliver and Patricia Stapenhorst (Patricia Morriss)
Date Published: March 1949
Pages: 16pp.
Printer: Hazell, Watson and Viney Ltd
Contents include: news about exports to the USA; new crime titles; Pelicans; Puffins; reprints; Penguin Guides; Penguin Periodicals; Penguin Prints; All in the Line by Saul Steinberg; The Things we See series; Allen Lane being awarded an honorary MA from Bristol University on 6 July 1948.
Penguins Progress 8
No.: 8
Title: PENGUINS PROGRESS Volume 8
Date Published: 1949
Pages: 20pp.
Printer: King and Hutchings Ltd
Contents include: news about plans to publish ten of Ngaio Marsh's crime novels in editions of 100,000 each; Pelicans; the bicentenary of Goethe; photograph of the Penguin Bookshop at no.10 Hosking Place, Sydney, Australia; Penguin Pocket Music Scores series; King Penguins; Penguin Personalities (Nikolaus Pevsner, Allen Lane, E.V. Rieu, H.F. Paroissien, W.E. Williams); centenary of The California and Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman; Penguin Lives series; Puffin Story Books and Puffin Picture Books; The Things we See series; Modern Painters series; awards to Penguin at the National Book League Annual Exhibition of Book Design.
Penguins Progress 9
No.: 9
Title: PENGUINS PROGRESS Volume 9
Date Published: 1949
Pages: 24pp.
Printer: King and Hutchings Ltd
Contents include: news about the Arts Council of Great Britain; a Pelican Guide to Art; Penguin Modern Painters; opera and ballet; musical guides; crime books; fifteen new group titles; Penguin Classics; Puffin Story Books; Puffin Picture Books; Pelicans; I Choose Peace by K. Killiacus; Contact Bridge for Everyone by Ely Culbertson; King Penguin; party in June 1949 to celebrate the publication of the 50th volume in the King Penguin series, Popular Art in the United States by Erwin Christensen (including photographs of the party); the publication and performance of the first model theatre play, The High Toby by J.B. Priestley (with photographs); photograph of Penguin's production recording-system manufactured by Block and Anderson Ltd.; Penguins in Canada; selected works of D.H. Lawrence; Penguin periodicals.
Penguins Progress 10
No.: 10
Title: PENGUINS PROGRESS Volume 10
Date Published: 1950
Pages: 32pp.
Printer: King and Hutchings Ltd
Contents include: news about the publication of a special selection of ten volumes of D.H. Lawrence's work to mark the twentieth anniversary of Lawrence's death; Penguin Classics; sales of Penguin books in the USA; Penguin Modern Painters series; Penguin detective and crime books; The Welsh by Wyn Griffith; A Prospect of Wales by Professor Gwyn Jones; Pelican histories; 'The Faith of a Translator' by E.V. Rieu; Common Wild Flowers by Dr John Hutchinson; Penguin Poets series; Penguin Periodicals; Puffin books; Science News; King Penguins; photograph of the Penguin stand at the November 1949 Sunday Times Book Fair.
Penguins Progress 11
No.: 11
Title: PENGUINS PROGRESS Volume 11
Illustrated: decorations by Elizabeth Friedlander
Date Published: 1950
Pages: 32pp.
Printer: King and Hutchings Ltd
Contents include: articles about Somerset Maugham; Phyllis Bentley's Freedom Farewell; Monica Dickens's Mariana; Angela Thirkell's The Brandons; Frank Baker's Miss Hargreaves; Saki's Beasts and Super Beasts; the Pelican archaeologies; Penguin Poetry; D.H. Lawrence; King Penguins; Sherlock Holmes; decision to close Penguin New Writing; 'Margery Allingham on Mr Campion and Myself'; New Biology; Penguin Music Scores; Penguin Classics; Puffins.
Penguins Progress 12
No.: 12
Title: PENGUINS PROGRESS Volume 12
Date Published: 1950
Pages: 32pp.
Printer: King and Hutchings Ltd
Contents include: announcement of the Penguin Book Exhibition at 117 Piccadilly, London from 21 November to 2 December 1950; 'American Quintet' (Sinclair Lewis, J.P. Marquand, Louis Bromfield, John Steinbeck and T.S. Stribling); suggestions for Christmas book gifts; Joseph Conrad; Katherine Mansfield; Harold Acton; the holding up of a consignment of 5,000 copies of The Golden Ass by the Australian Customs authorities; Penguin Green Crime novels; A.J.A. Symons's The Quest for Corvo; new Pelicans'; 'Truth in Biography' by Hesketh Pearson; Pelican Science and Reference books; The Good Soldier Schweik by Jaroslav Hasek; the increase in the price of Puffin Picture Books.
Penguins Progress 13
No.: 13
Title: PENGUINS PROGRESS Volume 13
Illustrated: by Milein Cosman
Date Published: 1951
Pages: 48pp.
Printer: King and Hutchings Ltd
Contents include: reprint of an article from The Times Literary Supplement entitled 'Penguins and Pelicans; 'A Pride of Penguins' by W.E. Williams; photographs of the party held at the opening of the Penguin Book Exhibition in November 1950; 'The Works of Evelyn Waugh' by Douglas Woodruff; The Odyssey; 'The Present Condition of Poetry' by Stephen Spender; 'Book-Breeders' Show'; 'Modern Swedish Architecture' by J.M. Richards; 'Once Upon a Time' by J.E. Morpurgo; 'The Use of Miniature Scores' by Gordon Jacob.
Penguins Progress 14
No.: 14
Title: PENGUINS PROGRESS Volume 14
Illustrated: by Gordon Cullen
Date Published: 1951
Pages: 48pp.
Printer: King and Hutchings Ltd
Contents include: The Canterbury Tales by Nevill Coghill; 'Celebrating the Arts' by W.E. Williams, including photographs of the Festival of Britain; 'On Satire' by Stevie Smith; 'The English Scene' by Geoffrey Grigson; 'Outdoor Activities' by Victor Bonham-Carter; 'Festival Art' by Eric Newton; 'The Artist at Work' by Alfred Scharf; 'The Background of Penguin Typography' by Beatrice Warde.






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