Welcome...
The Penguin Collectors Society was founded in 1974 by a small group of enthusiasts meeting in Richmond, Surrey; today there are over 500 members worldwide.
We study twentieth-century book design, particularly Penguin Books, and help to preserve and conserve Penguin Books and material relating to Penguin, and ensure the ready availability of that material for present and future research.
Actually collecting Penguin Books is not, of course, a prerequisite for membership. Any enthusiast for the good book design, typography, illustration and writing with which Penguin Books have been associated since 1935 will find something of interest here.
Latest News
Annual General Meeting 2011
This was held on Saturday, 17 September at The Fisher Theatre, Broad Street, Bungay, Suffolk . As John Hitchin was unable to attend, short talks on a variety of Penguin subjects were delivered by David Franks on Edward Luttwak, Penguin author and anarchist; David Fletcher on establishing a definitive list of Pelicans; and Martin Yates on the various Shakespeare series in Penguin which will form the subject of a future publication. After the formal business of the agm and general discussion among members, Jerry Cinamon gave an address to accompany his fine display of printed work by Jan Tschichold. Joe Pearson also provided a most interesting display of his outstanding collection of the very rare Argentine-published, Spanish-language Penguin books.
The previous afternoon a visit to Clays, printers of Penguin Books in Bungay for very many years, had been arranged for our members. Led by three members of Clays staff who were enthusiastic for the company’s work, and open and understanding in their explanations, members had seen the whole process of book production in a very impressive setting.
New Publications
Drawn Direct to the Plate
This is Joe Pearson’s long-awaited study of Noel Carrington and the Puffin Picture Books. Apart from a comprehensive survey of the books in this series, it places the series in the context of its lithographic precursors, principally Russian and French children’s books, and others published by Country Life. It also covers many of the Puffin Picture Books’ wartime rivals, such as Transatlantic Arts and Bantam Picture Books, as well as other works by many of the Puffin illustrators. Baby Puffins, Puffin Cut-out Books and Carrington’s later Harlequin Books are also covered in detail. The book ends with a section on Carrington and the Art of Lithography and an extended selection of Carrington’s own writings.
The book is a handsome production, in landscape format, 19.5 × 26cms, with 216 pages and 380 illustrations, the great majority of which are in colour. It is available from the Society, either online, or by post, at a cost of £20, inclusive of UK postage. For postage abroad, please add £3 for other European countries; £8 for the rest of the world, per copy ordered. Copies can be ordered below by Paypal. Orders by post (cheque payable to Penguin Collectors Society) should be sent to Martin Yates, 11 Quay House, Broad Street, Portsmouth, PO1 2GL.
To buy Drawn Direct to the Plate click here .
A Checklist of the Puffin Picture Books and Related Series
A companion to Drawn Direct to the Plate this provides detailed printing information for all known editions of Puffin Picture Books; Puffin Cut-out Books; Baby Puffins; Porpoise Books; Livros Ilustrados Puffin; Collection du Vieux Chamois; other foreign-language Puffin Picture Books; and Harlequin Books. Each title is illustrated in colour.
The book is in the same landscape format as most Puffin Picture Books, 18.1 × 22.2cms, with 80 pages and 212 illustrations, the great majority of which are in colour. It is available from the Society, either online, or by post, at a cost of £10, inclusive of postage. For postage abroad, please add £3 for other European countries; £5 for the rest of the world, per copy ordered. Copies can be ordered below by Paypal. Orders by post (cheque payable to Penguin Collectors Society) should be sent to Martin Yates, 11 Quay House, Broad Street, Portsmouth, PO1 2GL.
To buy A Checklist of the Puffin Picture Books and Related Series click here .
Previously Published
In 2005, as a contribution to Penguin Books’ 70th anniversary, the Society organised a study day at the V&A to which some of the great names in Penguin design were invited to speak. The day’s events were published in book form, Penguin by Designers, in 2007, and copies arrived on the very day that we held our second study day at the V&A, this time featuring Penguin illustrators.
Penguin by Illustrators is a celebration of that event, featuring in Part One the five presentations of Dennis Bailey, Romek Marber, Jan Pieńkowski, Tony Lyons and Jon Gray, and supplemented by Phil Baines’s introduction, and two further chapters by Quentin Blake and David Gentleman. In Part Two a further 27 artists were invited to write short essays about particular books or short series that they had illustrated for Penguin.
For a longer description of this major new work by the Society, click here.
Recent News
Annual General Meeting 2010
The Society’s AGM was held in the Wills Memorial Building of the University of Bristol on Saturday 16 October. Some 50 members and their partners were entertained to a most erudite, wide-ranging and interesting lecture by Simon Eliot, Professor of the History of the Book at the University of London, on: ‘Flightless Divers and Book History: The Precursors of Penguin Books’.
Puffin Study Day 2010
To celebrate 70 years of Puffin books in 2010, the Society held its fourth study day on Friday 15 October, also in the Wills Memorial Building of the University of Bristol, attended by c.75 members and others. The subject was Puffin books. The day was again hosted by Phil Baines and speakers included Joe Pearson on Noel Carrington and Puffin in the 1940s; Valerie Grove on Kaye Webb and Puffin in the 1960s and 1970s; former Puffin Editorial Director Liz Attenborough on Puffin in the 1980s and 1990s; current Puffin Managing Director Francesca Dow on contemporary Puffin; and a general discussion involving Francesca Dow, Puffin Classics Editorial Director Elv Moody, Puffin designer Anna Billson, author Joe Berger, artist Jan Pienkowski.