Penguin Archive 90 years

Penguin was founded in 1935. It would go on to revolutionise publishing with cheap paperbacks of all genres, bringing literature to the masses. Celebrating 90 years, Penguin has republished the Penguin Archives, 90 of its Classic works that have shaped our world.  

Founded in 1935 by Allen, Richard and John Lane, the brothers wanted to bring cheaper reading materials to the wider public and started producing paperback editions for only a sixpence, considerably more affordable than many other books at the time. Allen Lane wanted to focus on works of good quality, pushing against the idea that cheap books was necessarily tarred as lowbrow, full of bad writing and substandard plotlines. Rather, Lane chose to publish classics and non-fiction works that were previously out of reach of the masses due to cost. This not only allowed the lower classes to become more widely read with access to more literature than before, it also proved that there was a market for so-called “highbrow” among the masses. Penguin did not restrict their works to fiction, but quickly branched out into all areas, publishing fiction, dramas, histories, biographies, essays on world affairs and philosophy among many others. This completely revolutionised how publishers viewed their markets and allowed more people than ever to read widely across genres.  

Penguin was also revolutionary with its clear branding and distinct covers. Instead of garishly illustrated covers full of busy action, the Penguin covers were simple, with just title, author and the little Penguin logo emblazoned on front. The publishers colour coded the block colours according to the series they belonged to, meaning by a quick glance you could tell whether it was part of their crime fiction series (green and white), biographies (navy and white), or drama (red and white) and so on. This made the books stand out among the others on a shelf and soon became a hit.

Drawing on 90 years of classic texts, 10 from each decade, the collection of short reads is made up of novels, short stories, memoirs, essays, and letters. Authors include: 

• Sei Shonagon, a 10th century lady in waiting to the Japanese empress writing about her day to day and noting poems and gossip and anything that took her fancy 
• Antoine de Saint-Exupery, a French poet, journalist, and aviator who died flying for the French Resistance in World War 2 when his plane vanished returning from Corsica on a reconnaissance mission 
• Chester Himes, American Crime fiction writer whose novels explored the Black American experience in the 20th century.  

The collection also draws on foundational texts across our history including:  

• The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish, first published in 1666 and considered the first Science Fiction novel 

• Dylan Thomas’ Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night, famous for the Welsh poet’s lyrical prose 

• Hell by Dante Alighieri, the first instalment of Dante’s Divine Comedy which has shaped Christian views on hell and sin ever since

• The Maverick Pig by Wand Xiaobo, that reveals the China left behind after the Cultural Revolution. 

The collection also contains hidden gems, such as Jane Austen’s “The History of England by a Partial, Prejudiced and Ignorant Historian”, a less-well known light and biased retelling of English History by the famous author. 

We hope this brief introduction inspires you to check a few titles out, why not read a title per decade?

We are delighted to be able to display this fun collection, with their distinctive and attractive red covers, currently available on L3 in Harrison Library. See our Primo Collection for the full list and for a sneak peak check our our video.