ABPress Lists

AMERICAN RETRO

Reprints of American classic fiction, gatefold C format paperbacks at £6 each

BRITISH RETRO

Reprints of British classic fiction, gatefold C format paperbacks at £6 each

RETRO LITE

Reprints of shorter works, both American and British, B format paperbacks with card covers, at £4 each

RETRO POETS

Reprints of poetry published originally before 1948, C format paperbacks with card covers

POETRY PAMPHLETS

Poetry pamphlets, collections and anthologies, C format paperbacks with card covers and handmade, stitched binding

CONTEMPORARY

Novellas, short stories and essays by contemporary authors, paperbacks with card covers

Allen Lane, the founder of Penguin books, was a man who liked to be seen riding a virtuous horse though his spurs were as sharp as an abacus: money was his game and he chanced to sell his new Penguin range through his Penguincubator in 1937, in tobacconists alongside newspapers and boiled sweets, also a few placed as concessions in branches of F. W. Woolworth’s. One Penguincubator was commissioned at Charing Cross Station, placed next to a machine vending cigarettes. (6d the price of a packet of fags, 6d the price of the first Penguins, though am not sure if Lane had thought through how you were supposed to keep the books alight without a filter.) Booksellers in the Charing Cross locality objected to the Penguincubator and it was removed. It would seem that they were never successful in any case.