Penguin Books is the London paperback publisher founded by Allen Lane in 1935, known for sixpenny paperbacks, Pelican and Puffin, and now part of Penguin Random House.
Penguin Books is a publisher based in London, founded in 1935. We track 1,095 editions it published between 1928 and 2025, 512 of them first editions across 1,063 books. How Penguin Books marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Penguin Books
Penguin Books is the British paperback publisher founded in London in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, which sold good books for sixpence and is now part of Penguin Random House.
Penguin started as a paperback line of The Bodley Head and became a separate company in 1936, helped by an order of 63,000 books from Woolworths. The first ten titles, led by André Maurois's Ariel as No. 1, appeared on 30 July 1935. Covers were coloured by subject: orange for fiction, green for crime, dark blue for biography. The firm moved to Harmondsworth, Middlesex, in 1937, the year it launched the non-fiction Pelican imprint, and the Puffin Picture Books for children followed in 1940.
Most early Penguins were reprints of books first issued in hardback by other houses, so a Penguin first impression is usually not the first edition of the text. In 1960 Penguin published the unexpurgated Lady Chatterley's Lover and won the obscenity trial that followed, a turning point for British censorship.
Pearson bought Penguin on 21 August 1970, shortly after Lane's death. In 2013 Penguin merged with Random House to form Penguin Random House, wholly owned by Bertelsmann since April 2020.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Penguin Books's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Penguin Books first editions
What to look for
Penguin began as a reprint house, so most early Penguins reissue books first published in hardback by other firms, and a first Penguin printing of such a book is not the first edition of the text.
The earliest Penguins carry "The Bodley Head" on the front cover. It was dropped from No. 81, issued in March 1937, and replaced by the book's category, so a copy of one of the first 80 titles without it is not a first Penguin printing.
The first Penguins of 1935 were priced at sixpence (6d).
Penguin began as a reprint house, so most early Penguins reissue books first published in hardback by other firms, and a first Penguin printing of such a book is not the first edition of the text. - The earliest Penguins carry "The Bodley Head" on the front cover. It was dropped from No. 81, issued in March 1937, and replaced by the book's category, so a copy of one of the first 80 titles without
How many Penguin Books books does MyVolumes track?
We track 1,095 editions published by Penguin Books, 512 of them first editions, across 1,063 books.
