Puffin is Penguin's children's imprint, founded in 1940. Most Puffins are paperback reprints of books first published elsewhere, so check the copyright page; only Puffin originals such as Stig of the Dump are true firsts.
Puffin is the children's imprint of Penguin Books, launched on 2 April 1940 after Noel Carrington, then an editor of Country Life books, put the idea to Penguin's founder Allen Lane in 1939; it is now part of Penguin Random House.
Puffin began with Puffin Picture Books, illustrated non-fiction inspired partly by Russian children's books and the French Père Castor series; the list opened with War on Land. Fiction followed in 1941 as Puffin Story Books, starting with Barbara Euphan Todd's Worzel Gummidge, under Eleanor Graham, the first Puffin editor, who saw the list through the paper rationing of the 1940s.
Kaye Webb became editor in 1961 and stayed until 1979; the list grew from 51 titles when she arrived to 1,213 in print by 1969. She started the Puffin Club and its magazine Puffin Post in 1967. Under Webb, Puffin issued paperback originals such as Clive King's Stig of the Dump (1963). Authors on the list have included Philippa Pearce, Rosemary Sutcliff, Alan Garner and Roald Dahl.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Puffin's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Puffin first editions
What to look for
1940s to 1950s
Most Puffin Story Books were paperback reprints of children's books already issued by another publisher, whose paperback rights Puffin had bought. A Puffin copy of such a title is not the first edition: look for the earlier hardback from the original house.
1960s to 1970s
From the 1960s Puffin also published original titles. Stig of the Dump (1963) is one, and for books of this kind the Puffin paperback is the first edition.
For any other title, read the copyright page for an earlier publisher and date. If one appears, the Puffin is a later edition.
1980s to 1990s
Where a Puffin has a number line on the copyright page, the lowest number present is the printing, whatever order the numbers run in. A first printing shows a 1.
A 1 in the line of a Puffin reprint of another house's book shows only the first Puffin printing, a "first thus", not the true first edition.
From 2000
The number line rule still applies.
Many Puffin bestsellers began as hardbacks from another imprint. Artemis Fowl came out in 2001 as a Viking hardback in Britain and a Miramax hardback in America, and the Puffin paperback followed in 2002, so the Puffin is a later edition.
1940s to 1950s - Most Puffin Story Books were paperback reprints of children's books already issued by another publisher, whose paperback rights Puffin had bought. A Puffin copy of such a title is not the first edition: look for the earlier hardback from the original house. 1960s to 1970s - From the 1960s Puffin also published original titles. Stig of the Dump (1963) is one, and for books of this
How many Puffin books does MyVolumes track?
We track 427 editions published by Puffin, 93 of them first editions, across 417 books.
