Penguin Group Publisher Profile
Discover the World’s Second Largest Trade Publishing House
Aug 22, 2009
The name Penguin is associated with two things in publishing: the name Allen Lane, publisher of the first pocket books, and the association of Penguin Putnam. To unravel the connection of both, one has to take a look at the beginnings of today’s Penguin Group.
The History of Penguin Publishing
The first paperbacks cost just sixpence – the same as a packet of cigarettes – and were sold at railway stations, kiosks and wherever people were on the move. The public loved the idea of affordable and pocket-sized good-quality writing and lapped up three million copies during 1936 alone. Here’s a look at the beginnings of Penguin and Putnam and some of their milestones:
- 1838: George Palmer Putnam and John Wiley form Wiley & Putnam in New York.
- 1848: Wiley & Putnam part ways and Putnam founds G. Putnam Broadway.
- 1866: G. Putnam Broadway becomes G. P. Putnam & Sons when Putnam’s three sons join.
- 1872: G. P. Putnam & Sons becomes G. P. Putnam’s Sons after Putnam’s death.
- 1935: Penguin is founded by Allen Lane in London and publishes the first ten paperbacks, including among its first authors Ernest Hemingway and Agatha Christie.
- 1936: Penguin Books Ltd. is formed and sells 3 million books in its first year.
- 1936: G. P. Putnam’s Sons liaises with London-based Coward-McCann to publish from both sides of the Atlantic.
- 1939: Penguin USA is formed.
- 1941: The children’s imprint Puffin Books is established by Penguin.
- 1946: The Penguin Classics series is launched.
- 1961: Penguin Books goes public and Penguin Modern Classics is launched.
Mergers and Acquisitions at Penguin
The way publishers grow their business is by either expanding their publishing lists or by merging with or acquiring other publishers. While the decades from 1930 to 1960 can be described as publishing exploration that resulted in new types and areas of books, the 1960s to 1980s were characterized by national mergers and the decades after, until today, by international ones. Here’s an overview of the most important mergers and acquisitions affecting the Penguin Group:
- 1965: G.P. Putnam’s Sons acquires Berkley Books, a mass market paperback publisher.
- 1970: Penguin Books becomes a subsidiary of Pearson Longman Ltd. after Allen Lane dies.
- 1975: MCA, Inc. acquires The Putnam and The Berkley publishing groups.
- 1975: Penguin merges with New York-based Viking Press.
- 1982: Putnam acquires Grosset & Dunlap, publisher of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.
- 1983: Penguin purchases Frederick Warne, publisher of the Beatrix Potter series.
- 1986: Penguin acquires Dutton Books, publisher of Winnie-the-Pooh
- 1996: The Penguin Group buys Putnam Berkley Books and forms Penguin Putnam Inc.
- 2000: Pearson acquires Dorling Kindersley and integrates it within Penguin to form the Penguin Group (UK).
- 2002: Pearson acquires travel and music publishers Rough Guides.
- 2003: Penguin Putnam Inc. changes its name to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Penguin Authors
Penguin and its many imprints publish a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books, children’s literature, audio books and interactive titles. The publisher is home to world-famous and award-winning authors like Tom Clancy, Sue Grafton, Ken Follett, Saul Bellow, Joyce Carol Oates, Toni Morrison and John Steinbeck. In children’s publishing, the Penguin Group’s various children’s imprints are home to writers like Roald Dahl, Judy Blume, Eric Carle and many other popular authors.
Not a publisher to shy away from controversy, Penguin has upheld the right to free speech from the beginning and published such controversial titles as What Hitler Wants before WWII, E. V. Rieu’s translation of The Odyssey in 1946 and Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1960, for which it was charged under the Obscene Publications Act and later acquitted.
Penguin’s strengths throughout its exciting history have been threefold: focusing on mass market publishing and therefore a broad publishing program including controversial titles and publishing internationally – first on both sides of the Atlantic and today in most English-speaking countries.
Good resources are the Penguin profile on the Pearson website and the official Penguin USA website. Readers interested in this article may also like to read the publishing profile of the largest trade publisher, Random House, or that of Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins.
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