Penguin New Writing

Penguin Books began publishing a small magazine edited by John Lehmann in 1940 containing essays and short stories. Some of the titles in Volume I were "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell, "Sense of Humour" by V.S. Pritchett and "Conversation with a Lama" by Ralph Fox. The latter one has a location with the Mongols on a Steppe.  This must have seemed quite exotic at that time.

Every now and then I will come across one of these delightful little books and I always pick them up. Though I must say they don't show up very often.

Another lovely thing about them is they were published with covers of various covers. Pink, green, yellow, red and bray are the colours of the ones I have.

For interest I am including a bit from the Forward of Vol. II that gives some insight into the thinking of the day.

The first number of The Penguin New Writing was launched in the autumn of last year, and in a very few weeks more than justified the belief I had long held,and which Allen Lane had shared with me, that the magazine was capable of appealing to a far wider public than the original an dmore expensive volumes could ever reach.  This is only the second number; but the success of the first has already encouraged us to enlarge its scope and to turn it into something which, we think, is entirely new in journalism and meets an urgent demand of the times."  by John Lehmann, Penguin New Writing Magazine Vol 2, Jan 1941.

The magazines number in my inventory are listed below:

Penguin New Writing 

PNW   1:  Jan 1941 reprint  (dark orange)
PNW   2:  Jan 1941   (red)
PNW   5:  April 1941   (olive green)
PNW   9:  1941    (beige)

PNW   17: 1943   (gray)

PNW  19:  1944   (dark yellow)
PNW   20: 1944   (pink)
PNW  21:  1944   (gray)
PNW  22:  1944   (brown)

PNW  23:  1945   (gray)
PNW  24:  1945   (green)
PNW  25:  1945   (red)  Note on inside front cover stating price to go up 1 Jan 1946 to 1 shilling
PNW  26:  1945   (brown)

PNW  27:  1946   (light green w/ blue and green illustration)
PNW  28:  1946   (yellow with brown and yellow illustration)

PNW  29:  1947   (brown with brown and green illustration)
PNW  30:  1947   (gray with grey and brown illustration)
PNW  31:  1947   (dark green with dark green and light green illustration)
PNW  32:  1947   (dark pink with dark pink and gray illustration)

PNW  33:  1948   (Grey with purple illustration)
PNW  34:  1948   (green with red and green illustration)
PNW  35:  1948   (blue with blue and green illustration)

PNW  36:  1949   (brown with brown and yellow illustration)
PNW  37:  1949   (red with blue/grey and red illustration)
PNW  38:  1949   (orange with orange and yellow illustration)

PNW  39:  1950   (yellow w/ Penguin Logo in background)
PNW  40:  1950   (grey with Penguin Logo in background)

Penguin Series and Boxed Sets

For a long time I collected Penguin boxed sets.  Now it seems Penguin doesn't bother with a box anymore and sells the books within a series individually.  I like the illustrations and designs of the vintage boxed sets as well as the newer one but have slowed down finding any more.  I always enjoy hearing about the sets I don't have, if only to have a look at the design.

 The sets I currently have in my collection are listed below.

There were several small orange boxed sets with 10 books per set.  I often find the individual books for sale from the sets and some unknowning book sellers will sell the actual sets with the wrong books in them so if you want a correct set be sure to check them. (For example a travel book might be in the biography set).

• Penguin Classics - 10 orange spined books
• Penguin Classics - 10 black spined books
• Penguin Travel- set of 10 books
• Penguin Biography - set of 10 books
• Penguin Cookery - set of 10 books
• Pocket Penguins -A Collection of Stories - set of 10 books

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Other collectable boxed sets are the 60th anniversary boxed sets of classics. The two sets released each have 60 books of excerpts from the original books Penguin published. They are tasters so to speak.  There was a set of Penguin Classics with black spines in a black designed box and there was a set of Penguin 60's published in an orange box and the books, also excerpts from original published books have orange spines.

• Penguin Classics 60
• Penguin 60's

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Other series that were published are:

• Penguin Classics Millenium (in a box)
• Winston Churchill-The Second World War (in a box)
• The First 10 Penguins ever published (in a box)
• Great Ideas I (in a box)
• Great Ideas II (in a box)

After that the Great Ideas books were published in a series (numbered starting with number 41 and were not in a box of 20 books anymore).

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More sets on the shelves include:

• Boys Own Adventures (boxed)
• Sherlock Holmes (boxed)
• Penguin Banned Books (boxed)
• Penguin Epics (boxed)
• Charles Dickens Christmas Books (boxed)
• Life & Times of Horatio Hornblower (boxed)
• Mervyb Peake (boxed)
• War and Peace (boxed)
• Best of John Wyndham (boxed)
• Discover the World of Thomas Hardy (boxed)
• Penguin Miss Read Companion (boxed)
• Come Hither by Walter de la Maré (boxed)
• Sword of Honor Trilogy by Evelyn Waugh (boxed)
• The Penguin Upmanship by Stephen Potter (boxed)
• Thor Heyerdahl: Kon Tiki, R.A., Aku-Aku (boxed)
• The Essential Collection of Poetry-First Editions (boxed)
• English Journeys (boxed)
• Great Food Series (unboxed)
• Penguin Underground Lines (boxed)
• A Puffin Box of Magic

Penguin Handbooks

Penguin Handbooks were a series of non-fiction books that gave the reader information about many varied topics.  Some of the titles referred to dogs, cats, farm animal breeding, cooking, living well, photography and many other topics.  They are often illustrated with either line drawings or photography and I love them.

I currently have the following collection and am continually looking for more to complete these series.
Dates listed refer to the year Penguin Books published them. 




PH   9:  The Penguin Handyman by Foster Wiseman (1945)
PH 10:  The Breeding of Farm Animals by Chapman Pincher (1946)
PH 17:  The Penguin Cookery Book by Bee Nilson (1961-reprint)
PH 20:  The Intelligent Parents' Manual by Florence Powdermaker and Louise Grimes (1953)
PH 21:  Dogs by Arthur Croxton-Smith (1953)
PH 29:  Flower Arrangement by Betty Massingham (1957)
PH 30:  Cats by Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald (1957)
PH 31:  Photography by Eric De Maré (1957)
PH 36:  The Penguin Hoyle by Hubert Phillips (1958)
PH 37:  Roses by F. Fairbrother (1958 reprint)
PH 38:  The Art of Living by André Maurois (1960)
PH 44:  Rock Gardens by E.B. Anderson (1959)
PH 46:  The Chess Mind by Gerald Abrahams (1960)
PH 55:  The Penguin Car Handbook by Robert Ireson (1960)
PH 58:  Preparation for Painting by Lynton Lamb (1960)
PH 71:  Delphiniums by Ronald Parrett (1961)
PH 79:  Scootering by Jon Stevens (1962)
PH 80:  How to Cook and Eat in Chinese by Buwei Yang Chao
PH 81:  Dogs Edited by Margaret Flanndery (1962)


PH 102:  The Art of the Middle Game by Paul Keres & Alexander Kotov (1964)
PH 113:  Robin McDouall's Cooker Book For the Greedy (1965)
PH 128:  Danish Cooking by Nika Standen Hazelton (1967)
PH 131:  Posh Food by André Launay (1967)
PH 134:  How to Drive Safely by John Eldred Howard (1967)
PH 139:  Soups and Hors d'Oeuvres by Marika Hanbury-Tenison (1969)
PH 143:  Entertaining Single-Handed by Desmond Briggs (1968)

King Penguins

King Penguins are the lovely little hardcover books that Penguin Books published during Allen Lane's time.  I have collected the following first published books but am always looking to complete this collection.




K1:  British Birds on Lake, River & Stream by Phyllis Barclay-Smith (1939)
K   2:  A Book of Roses by J. Ramsbottom (1939)
K   3:  A  Book of Ships by Charles Mitchell (board covers)
K   4:  Portraits of Christ by Ernst Kitzinger & Elizabeth Senior (1940)

K   5:  Caricature by E.H. Gombrich and E. Kris (1940)  (soft cover)
K   6:  British Shells by Martin Duncan
K   7:  Fashions and Fashion Plates 1800-1900 by James Laver
K   8:  Elizabethan Miniatures by CarlWinter (1952-reprint)
K   9:  The Microcosm of London by T. Rowlandson & A.C. Pugin (1943)
K 10:  The Bayeux Tapestry by Eric Maclagan, C.B.E. (1945)
K 11:  Britain's Rivers and Lakes by J.R. Norman (1943)
K 12:  The Poet's Corner by Sir Max Beerbohm ( 1943)
K 13:  Edible Fungi by John Ramsbottom (1943)
K 14  A Book of Lilies by Fred Stoker (1943)
K 16:  Children As Artists by R. R. Tomlinson (1944)
K 17:  The Leaves of Southwell by Nikolaus Pevsner (1945)
K 18:  Some British Moths by Norman Riley (1944)
K 19:  Garden Birds by Phyllis Barclay-Smith (1952-reprint)
K 20:  English Ballet by Janet Leeper (1944)
K 21:  Popular Art in Britain by Noel Carrington (1945)
K 22:  Heraldry in England by Anthony Wagner (1946)
K 24:  Birds of the Sea by R.M. Lockley (1945)
K 25:  UR by Sir Leonard Woolley (1946)


K 26:  A Book of Toys by Gwen White (1946)
K 27:  Flowers of Marsh & Stream by Iolo A. Williams (1946)
K 28:  A Book of English Clocks by R.W. Symonds (1947)
K 29:  Flowers in the Woods by E.J. Salisbury (1946)
K 30:  Wood Engravings by Thomas Bewickl by John Rayner
           (1947)
K 31:  English Book Illustrations 1800-1900 by Philip James  
           (1947)
K 33:  Russian Icons by David Talbot Rice (1947)
K 34:  The English Tradition in Design (1947)
K 35:  Spiders by W.S. Bristowe (1947)
K 36:  Ballooning by C.H. Gibbs-Smith (1948)
K 37:  Wild Flowers of the Chalk by John Gilmour (1947)
K 38:  Compliments of the Season by L.D. Ettlinger & R.G.  Holloway (1947)
K 39:  Woodcuts of Albrecht Durer by T. D. Barlow
K 40: Edward Gordon Craig (Designs for the Theatre) by Janet Leeper
K 42:  British Military Uniforms by James Laver (1948)
K 43:  A Prospect of Wales by Kenneth Rowntree and Gwyn Jones (1948)
K 44: Tulipomania by Wilfred Blunt
K 45: Unknown Westminster Abbey by Lawrence Tanner
K 46: Highland Dress by George Collie
K 47: British Reptiles and Amphibia by Malcolm Smith
K 48: A Book of Scripts by Alfred Fairbank
K 49: Some British Beetles by Geoffrey Taylor
K 50: Popular Art in the United States by Erwin Christensen
K 53: Flowers of the Meadow by Geoffrey Gries (1950)
K 54:  Greek Terracottas by T.B.L. Webster (1950)
K 55:  Romney Marsh by John Piper (1950)
K 56:  Early British Railways by Christian Barman (1950)
K 58:  A Book of Ducks by Phyllis Barclay-Smith (1951)
K 59:  Ackermann's Cambridge by Reginald Ross Williamson    
           (1952-reprint)
K 60:  The Crown Jewels (1951)
K 61:  John Speed's Atlas of England & Wales (1951)
K 62:  Medieval Carvings in Exeter Cathedral (1953)
K 63:  A Book of Green Coins by Charles Seltman (1952)
K 65: Semi-Precious Stones by N. Wooster
K 66: Birds of La Plata
K 67:  Mountain Birds by G.E. Lodge (1952)
K 68:  Animals in Staffordshire Pottery by Bernard Rackham, C.B. (1953)
K 69: Ackermann's Oxford
K 70:  The Diverting History of John Gilpin by Wm Cowper (1953)
K 72:  Misericords-Medieval Life in English Woodcarving by M.D.Anderson (1954)
K 73: The Picture of Cricket by John Arlott
K 74:  Woodland Birds by Phyllis Barclay-Smith 1955
K 75:  Monumental Brasses by James Mann (1957)

K 76:  The Sculpture of the Parthenon by P.E. Corbett (1959)

Penguin's Puffin Picture Book

Penguin published some really interesting children's Picture Books under the name of Puffin.  They are exceptionally difficult to find but I have managed to attain a very few from a trip I took to England a couple of years ago.  They are fragile and as they were developed for children I imagine many had a great deal of wear and tear.  I continue to look for them wherever I visit.

Hamish by Joanna Cannan
Illustrated by Anne Bullen
PP 13- published 1949 (reprint)

Waterways of the World by WJ Bassett-Lowke & L Dunn
PP 32- published 1944

The Magic of Coal by Peggy M. Hart
PP 49- published 1945

Dogs by Maurice Wilson
PP 56- published ?? (not found)

Our Ponies by Allen W. Seaby
PP 78- published 1949

Wild Flowers PP 81 - published 1949

Vintage Penguin Puffins

The following Puffins are in my collection.  I try to collect first published Penguins only. This makes for an interesting challenge.  Dates indicate the year that Penguin published these books.

PS   5:  Smoky The Story of a Horse by Will James (1949- reprint)
PS   8:  The Microbe Man, A Life of Pasteur by Eleanor Doorly
PS 10:  Tents in Mongolia by Henning Haslund (1943)
PS 30:  Worzel Gummidge and Sauce Nancy by Barbara Euphan Todd (1951-reprint)
PS 40:  Discovery by Sir Richard Gregory (1949)
PS 44:  Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll (1948)
PS 47:  The Young Detectives by R J McGregor (R1963)
PS 51:  The Grey Goose of Kilnevin (R1968)
PS 55:  Strangers at the Fair by Patricia Lynch (1949)
PS 60:  Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson (R1961)
PS 67:  Selected Cautionary Verses (1950)
PS 68:  The Radium Woman by Eleanor Doorly (1953)
PS 70:  Selected Stories and Verses by Walter de la Mare  (1952)
PS 72 A Puffing Book of Verse compiled by Eleanor Graham (1963) - reprint
PS 80:  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain ((1961-reprint)
PS 81:  Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson (1949)
PS 87:  Fell Farm For Christmas by Marjorie Lloyd (1954)
PS 91:  The Children Who LIved in a Barb(1965-reprint)
PS 94:  The Heir of Charlecote by Mark Dallow (1955)

PS 101:  Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green  (R1963)
PS 111: King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard (1965)-reprint
PS 115:  Bush Holiday by Stephen Fennimore (1958)
PS 126:  Emil and the Detectives (1964 reprint)
PS 131:  Avalanche by A. Rutgers Van Der Loeff (1964-reprint)
PS 133:  The Good Master by Kate Seredy (1959)
PS 139:  The Saga of Asgard by Roger Lancelyn Green
PS 148:  Four Feet and Two (compilation) (1964- reprint)
PS 150:  Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson (1961)
PS 150:  Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson (R1964)
PS 163:  The Otterbury Incident by C. Day Lewis (1963-reprint)
PS 166:  Greyfriars Bobby by Eleanor Atkinson (1962)x 2
PS 168:  Moonfleet by J. Meade Falkner (R1964)
PS 183:  The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden (1963)
PS 187:  The Midnight Folk by John Masefield (1963)
PS 197:  The Spanish Cave by Geoffrey Household (1963)



PS 208:  The Hill of the Red Fox by Allan Campbell McLean (1964)
PS 218:  The Bookshop on the Quay by Patricia Lynch (1964)
PS 221:  Aidan and the Strollers by Frederick Grice ((R1964)
PS 222:  Landslide by Véronique Day (1964)
PS 238:  A Valley Full of Pipers by Richard Parker (1965)
PS 249:  A Book of Princesses selected by S. P. Johnson (1967-reprint)
PS 261:  Ponder and William by Barbara Softley (1966)
PS 264:  In The Daisy-Field by Eleanor Farjeon (1966)
PS 268:  Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (1960R)
PS 280:  St George and the Dragon & Punch and Judy by Diana
               John (1966)
PS 291:  Dr. Doolittle's Post Office by Hugh Lofting (1967)
PS 293:  The Growing Summer by Noel Streatfeild (1966)
PS 295:  The Humpy in the Hills by John Gunn (1967)



PS 302:  The Country Child by Alison Uttley (1966) (Penguin also
               published this in Peacock Bks)
PS 305:  The Luck of Troy by Roger L. Green (1967)
PS 306:  The Copper Nail by C.J. Lambert (1967)
PS 311:  The Flying Classroom by Erich Kastner (1967)
PS 316:  The Four-Storey Mistake by Elizabeth Enright (1967)
PS 318:  Jack Holborn by Leon Garfield (1967)
PS 326:  The Merry Go Round (1967) chosen by James Reeves
PS 332:  The Pig in the Middle by William Mayne (1968)
PS 335:  The Golden Goblet by E.J. McGraw (1968)
PS 339:  Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome (1968)
PS 345:  Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken (1968)
PS 368:  Doctor Doolittle's Garden by Hugh Lofting (1968)
PS 375:  The Chesterfield Gold by Roger Pilkington (1968)
PS 379:  Harriet and The Cherry Pie by Clare Compton (1963)
PS 380:  The High Deeds of Finn Mac Cool (1960)
PS 382:  Half Magic by Edward Eager (1968)
PS 387:  Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes (1969)

PS 402:  The Grove of Green Holly by Barbara Willard (1969)

Penguin Specials

I collect the Penguin Special Books that are some of the most interesting books I believe Penguin published.  As usual, all of the books I try to attain are first  published editions. Dates listed after the titles are when Penguin Publishers published the book. Many of these books also came with dust jackets. 

I currently have the following books but am always searching for more.

Penguin Specials have the letter S on the spine before the number.

S     3:  Blackmail or War by Genevieve Tabouis
            (6th Edition- revised 1938)

S     4:  Searchlight on Spain by Duchess of Atholl, M.P. (Third Large Edition - Sep't 1938 w/ new 

            maps)  Originally published in June 1938 and again in June 1938)

S     8:  The Air Defence of Britain by Air Commodores L. Charlton,G. Garratt & LT Commander R. 

            Fletcher M.P. (1938 reprint) Original publication also in 1938

S   13:  What Hitler Wants by E. O. Lorimer (1939)

S   14:  Mowrer in China by Edgar Ansel Mowrer (1938)

S   19:  Britain by Mass-Observation written by Charles Madge and Tom Harrisson (1939)

S   20:  The Press by Wickham Steed 1938)

S   24:  They Betrayed Czechoslovakia by C. J. George (1938)

S   25:  I Was Hitler's Prisoner by Stefan Lorant (1939)

S   34:  Poland by W. J. Rose (1939)

S   36:  The Attack from Within by Elwyn Jones (1939) (two copies)

S   48:  An ABC of International Affairs: The Penguin Political Dictionary compiled by Walter  

            Theorem (1939)

S   51:  Must The War Spread by D. N. Pritt, K.C., M.P. (1940)

S   54:  Unser Kampf- Our Struggle by Sir Richard Acland M.P. (1940)

S   60:  Warships at Work by A.C. Hardy Illus by L Dunn (1940)

S   75:  New Ways of War by Tom Wintringham (1940)
S   76:  The Real Cost of War by J. Keith Horsefield

S   ??:  Generals and Generalship Lectures @ Trinity College 1939 by General Wavell (1941)

S    ??: Reaching For the Stars by Nora Waln Australian Edition (1942) British Edition was published 

            in 1942 also but I don't have it.

S   83:  Europe At War by Low (A history in 60 cartoons w/ narrative text) (1941reprint) Original 1941

S 135:  How the Jap Army Fights by varied members of USA Army First published Australian edition 

            (1944), British edition was originally published 1943

S 149:  Miners Day by B.L. Coombes (1945)

S 158:  Policy For The West by Barbara Ward (1951)

S 159:  Attitude to Africa by W A Lewis, M Scott, M Wight, C. Legum (1951)

S 161:  The Kingship of Christ by The Bishop of Chichester, G.K.A.Bell (1954)
S 168:  Pattern of the Post-War World by Gordon Connell-Smith (1957)

S 171:  60 Seasons of League Football by R. C. Churchill (1958)

S 174:  Geography of World Affairs- A Penguin Special by J.P. Cole

S 184:  Brighter Than 1000 Suns by Robert Junk (1960)

S 185:  The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard (1960 reprint) Originally published 1959

S 186:  America the Vincible by Emmet John Hughes (1959)
S 187:  The Organization Man by William H. Whyte (1960)

S 196:  Hanged in Error by Leslie Hale (1961)

S 197:  Hanged by the Neck by Arthur Koestler & C.H.Rolph (1961)

S 201:  The General Says No by Nora Beloff (1963)
S 203:  Madison Avenue U.S.A. (1961)

S 214:  United Nations: Piety Myth and Truth by Andrew Boyd (1962)

S 217:  Britain in the Sixties: The Crown and the Establishment by Kingsley Martin (1963)

S 233:  The Last Confucian (Vietnam, South East Asia, and the West) by Dennis Warner (1964)

S 242:  The Challenor Case by Mary Grigg (1965)

S 262:  May Day Manifesto 1968 Edited by Raymond Williams (1968)

S 268:  Obsolete Communish The Left-Wing Alternative by Gabriel & Daniel Cohn-Bendit (1969)

S ???:  South East Asia in Turmoil (1965)