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In the early 1930's, most publishers thought the market for quality books was limited to a handful of elite readers. Allen Lane, then managing director of the Bodley Head, a British publishing company, had other ideas. While searching for something to read on his trip back to London after visiting Agatha Christie—and only finding popular magazines and reprints of Victorian novels in the railway station kiosk—he was convinced that there was a need for moderately priced editions of good-quality contemporary writing.

Setting up his business in the crypt of London's Trinity Church, he began to reprint quality fiction and nonfiction in low-cost paperback editions. In July 1935, he revolutionized publishing with the introduction of the first ten Penguin paperbacks. Within a year, more than one hundred titles were in print and one million Penguin books had been sold. In 1946, Allen Lane published classical scholar E.V.Rieu's translation of The Odyssey which went on to sell three million copies worldwide. That was the beginning of the Penguin Classics, Lane then asked Rieu to commission translations of other works for the new series. Little did Lane realize the impact his "paperback revolution" had on reading—today, 75 years later, more than 600 million paperbacks are sold annually worldwide. Now Penguin and Penguin Classics trade paperbacks and eBooks carry the most recognized logo of any book publisher in the world, with a list as stimulating and diverse as readers themselves.

Covering such subjects as literature, biography, memoir, history, science, business, psychology, popular reference, poetry and self-help, the Penguin list now has more than 3,000 books in print in the United States.

Penguin has long been committed to publishing great fiction and poetry, including the work of Nobel laureates, National Book Award winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, Man Booker winners, and bestselling authors. Sebastian Barry, T. C. Boyle, Geraldine Brooks, J. M. Coetzee, Carl Dennis, Rita Dove, Stella Duffy, Kim Edwards, Juliette Fay, Jasper Fforde, Adam Foulds, Tana French, Margaret George, Paolo Giordano, Nadine Gordimer, Sophie Hannah, Deborah Harkness, Terrence Hayes, Beth Hoffman, Ryan David Jahn, Jan Karon, Garrison Keillor, William Kennedy, Jack Kerouac, Philip Kerr, Ken Kesey, Sheila Kohler, Sue Monk Kidd, John le Carré, Janice Y.K. Lee, Francois Lelord, Drew Magary, Arthur Miller, Robin Oliveira, Stewart O'Nan, Ann Ross, Zadie Smith, Wallace Stegner, John Steinbeck, Amy Tan, William Trevor, Danielle Trussoni, Christos Tsiolkas, William Vollmann, David Foster Wallace, Jacqueline Yallop and Carlos Ruiz Zafón are only a few of the writers whose work is published by Penguin

On the nonfiction side, Penguin publishes many such knowledgeable and wonderful writers as Liaquat Ahamed, David Allen, John M. Barry, Antony Beevor, John Berendt, Ingrid Betancourt, David Byrne, Novella Carpenter, Rosanne Cash, Ron Chernow, Amy Chua, Steve Coll, Matthew Crawford, George Dawson, Jared Diamond, Norman Doidge, Niall Ferguson, Zlata Filipovic, Roger Fisher, Joshua Foer, Paul French, Elizabeth Gilbert, Paul Greenberg, Robert Greene, Linda Greenlaw, Ted Gup, Paul Johnson, Rula Jebreal, Tony Judt, Mary Karr, John Keegan, Mark Kurlansky, Ray Kurzweil, Aung San Suu Kyi ,Michael Lewis, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Dan Morrison, Nathaniel Philbrick, Steven Pinker, Michael Pollan, Sir Ken Robinson, Nouriel Roubini, Arundhati Roy, Jeffrey Sachs, Leslie Marmon Silko, Rebecca Solnit, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Jonathan Spence, Amy Tan, Lewis Thomas, Krista Tippett, Jim Trelease, Scott Turow, Garry Wills, and many other great writers.

Penguin Mysteries are a select and diverse group of titles that round out the Penguin list with stellar domestic and international bestsellers including works by Nancy Atherton, Andrea Camilleri, Craig Johnson, Donna Leon, M.L. Longworth, C.J. Sansom and Fred Vargas.

Because What You Read Matters: Penguin Classics

For 65 years, Penguin has been the leading Classics publisher in the English-speaking world, providing readers with a global bookshelf of the best works from around the world and across history, genres, and disciplines. We focus on bringing together the best of the past and the future, using cutting edge design and production as well as embracing the digital age to create unforgettable editions of treasured literature. Penguin Classics is timeless and trend-setting. Whether you love our familiar black spine series, our Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions, or our Penguin Amplified eBook Classics, we bring the writer to the reader in every format available.

The Penguin Classics series comprises more than 1500 titles, making it the largest publisher of ancient and modern classic literature in the English-speaking world. The Classics list includes a vast array of fiction, nonfiction, drama and poetry based on definitive texts and introduced by experts, and many magnificent translations including Robert Fagles' translations of Homer and Virgil, Pevear and Volokhonsky's award-winning translation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Lydia Davis's monumental translations of Proust's Swann's Way and Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Tiina Nunnally's translation of Undset's 3 volume epic Kristin Lavransdatter and Edith Grossman's acclaimed translation of Gongora's The Solitudes.

Penguin Classics is also the exclusive publisher of modern authors such as John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, Arthur Miller, Graham Greene, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Bruce Chatwin, Robertson Davies, Leslie Marmon Silko and Iris Murdoch. Included in the series are Penguin Classics Deluxe editions, the Penguin Classics Portables and the Penguin Classics Deluxe editions featuring covers illustrated by such renowned graphic artists as Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Roz Chast, Frank Miller and Audrey Niffenegger, as well as covers by fashion illustrators Ruben Toledo and Richard Gray, and Penguin Threads, art directed by Paul Buckley with cover art by Jillian Tamaki.

Penguin Classics began a complete repackaging program for the entire list in 2003, updating notes and introductions, improving paper quality, and adding a broad range of new titles, all on the cutting edge of scholarship, and of interest both to the trade and academia.

The Penguin list continues to grow, to embrace new writers, and to keep in print the works of some of the world's most important authors. Readers' needs and tastes change, and the Penguin list has evolved over more than 65 years. With its familiar logo that stands for quality and distinction, the Penguin also represents what is fresh, contemporary and bestselling in paperbacks and eBooks.

 

Kathryn Court
President and Publisher

Kathryn Court joined Penguin Books in 1977 and became Editorial Director two years later. In 1984 she was named Editor in Chief of Viking Penguin and in 1992 Senior Vice-President, Publisher, and Editor in Chief of Penguin Books. She was named President of Penguin Books in August 2000. Among the authors she has worked with are Reinaldo Arenas, Antony Beevor, Andrea Camilleri, J.M. Coetzee, Slavenka Drakulic, Mary Relindes Ellis, Robert Fagles, Josephine Humphreys, Craig Johnson, Garrison Keillor, Nora Okja Keller, John le Carré, Janice Y.K. Lee, Simon Lelic, Donna Leon, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Mary McGarry Morris, John Mortimer, Robin Oliveira, Linda Olsson, Vicki Robin, Richard Rodriguez, C.J. Samsom, Amy Tan, Jim Trelease, William Trevor, Scott Turow, and Jacqueline Yallop.

 

Elda Rotor
Editorial Director, Penguin Classics

Elda Rotor joined Penguin Classics as Executive Editor in 2006 and became Editorial Director in 2008. Before Penguin, she was Senior Editor at Oxford University Press. Titles include the Couture Classics with cover art by fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo, deluxe editions with graphic cover art for The Communist Manifesto, Great Expectations, and Persuasion, the Penguin Threads series, American Scriptures edited by Laurie Maffly-Kipp, In Corner B by Es'kia Mphahlele, The Martyred by Richard Kim, and Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo by Jose Rizal. She is the editor of The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry (November 2011), edited by Rita Dove, Lincoln on the Civil War, The Penguin Guide to the U.S. Constitution edited by Richard Beeman, and The Inaugural Address by Barack Obama.

 

Awards

The Nobel Prize for Literature

  • 2003: J.M. Coetzee, South Africa
  • 1991: Nadine Gordimer, South Africa
  • 1990: Octavio Paz, Mexico
  • 1982: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Columbia
  • 1978: Isaac Bashevis Singer, U.S.
  • 1976: Saul Bellow, U.S.
  • 1973: Patrick White, Australia
  • 1972: Heinrich Boll, Germany
  • 1971: Pablo Neruda, Chile
  • 1962: John Steinbeck, U.S.
  • 1949: William Faulkner, U.S.
  • 1948: T.S. Eliot, England
  • 1947: Andre Gide, France
  • 1946: Herman Hesse, Switzerland
  • 1936: Eugene O'Neill, U.S.
  • 1934: Luigi Pirandello, Italy
  • 1933: Ivan G. Bunin, U.S.S.R.
  • 1930: Sinclair Lewis, U.S.
  • 1929: Thomas Mann, Germany
  • 1928: Sigrid Undset, Norway
  • 1925: George Bernard Shaw, Ireland
  • 1923: William Butler Yeats, Ireland
  • 1921: Anatole France, France
  • 1920: Knut Hamson, Norway
  • 1913: Rabindranath Tagore, India
  • 1907: Rudyard Kipling, England

The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

The Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction

The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

The National Book Award

The National Book Critics Circle Award

The Booker Prize

Agatha Award for Best Novel

Alex Award for Adult Boooks for Young Adults

ALA Notable Book of the Year

American Academy of Arts and Letters:

  • 2001: Garrison Keillor (for body of work)
  • 2001: Alice Notley: Literature
  • 2001: Rachel Wetzsteon: Poetry

American Society of Journalists and Authors' Nonfiction Award

Asian American Literature Award

Biennial Valiente Award

Book Sense Book of the Year for Nonfiction

Borders Original Voices Award for Fiction

Borders Original Voices Award for Non-Fiction

Bouchercon Lifetime Achievement Award

  • 2000: Jane Langton

California Book Awards: Nonfiction

California Book Award Gold Medal

California Book Award Silver Medal

Christopher Award for Nonfiction

Christy Award for Contemporary/General Fiction given by The Christian Booksellers Association

Council of Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Award

Irish Times Literary Prize for Fiction

Irish Times Literary Prize for Nonfiction

The James Beard Foundation Award for Writing on Food

Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Award for Translation of Japanese Literature

Jerusalem Prize for Freedom of the Individual in Society

  • 2003: Arthur Miller

Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award

Koret Jewish Book Award: Fiction

Lannon Literary Award in Poetry

Lettre Ulysses Award for Literary Reportage

Lionel Gelber Prize

The Los Angeles Times Book Prize

The Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery

MacArthur Foundation Fellows

  • 2003: Lydia Davis, translator of Marcel Proust's Swann's Way

McCavity Award for Fiction

Mark Lynton History Prize

National Parenting Publication Award

New York City Book Award for Historical Fiction

  • 2004: The Newsboy's Lodging House by Jon Boorstin

New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism

  • 2005: American Dream by Jason De Parle

The Orange Prize for Fiction

The PEN/ Martha Albrand Award for Best First Book of Nonfiction

The PEN BOMC Translation Prize

The PEN Center USA Literary Awards

Public Service Award given by The National Science Board

  • 2000: Dava Sobel

San Diego Book Prize for Best Mainstream Novel

San Francisco Bay Area Book Reviewers Association Best Work of Nonfiction

Sidney Hillman Journalism Award in the Book Category

Southern Book Award for Fiction

Spain's Prince Asturis Award of Letters

Storyteller of the Year Award

Theodore Geisl Best Book of the Year Award

Theoligos Award for Best Academic Book

Wisconsin Literary Award

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