Publisher · founded 1944 · London
Pan Books
Pan Books is the British paperback house Alan Bott registered in 1944, now part of Macmillan. It mostly reprinted other publishers' hardbacks, so a Pan copy is usually a first paperback, not a first edition.
- Editions tracked
- 317
- First editions
- 57
- Books
- 315
- Years
- 1925 to 2021
Pan Books is a publisher based in London, founded in 1944. We track 317 editions it published between 1925 and 2021, 57 of them first editions across 315 books. How Pan Books marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Pan Books
Pan Books is a British paperback publisher registered on 1 September 1944 by Alan Bott, a First World War flying ace and journalist who also owned the Book Society; it is now part of Pan Macmillan, owned by the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group.
Pan issued six unnumbered books in 1945 and 1946, then launched its numbered list in June 1947 with twelve titles, the first being Rudyard Kipling's Ten Stories. Its logo was based on a design by Mervyn Peake, and unlike early Penguins its covers carried pictorial art. Bott died in 1952.
Ownership passed to a consortium of publishers made up of Collins, Heinemann and Macmillan, with Hodder & Stoughton a member for a short time. Macmillan became sole owner in 1987, and in 1990 Pan merged with Macmillan's trade division to form Pan Macmillan.
Its paperback list included Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, and its colourful covers of the 1950s and 1960s are now collected. Pan was the original publisher of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, first published in London on 12 October 1979.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Pan Books's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Pan Books first editions
Authors
Books
Published by Pan Books
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify a Pan Books first edition?
How many Pan Books books does MyVolumes track?
We track 317 editions published by Pan Books, 57 of them first editions, across 315 books.
Where these facts come from
- Pan Books, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Celebrating 70 years of Pan paperbacks, Pan Macmillan, 2017 (trade.panmacmillan.com)
- PAN Books beginnings, TiKiT (tikit.net)
- Agatha Christie and Pan Books, Collecting Christie, 2023 (collectingchristie.com)
- Hickory Dickory Dock (novel), Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (novel), Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- First-Edition Identification by Publisher, ILAB (ilab.org)
- How to Identify a First Edition Book, Empty Mirror (emptymirrorbooks.com)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 21 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.