PUBLISHING
A success story
ANJANA RAJAN
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Penguin has just turned 70. To mark the occasion, it has brought out 70 pocket penguins, priced, you guessed it, at 70 pence each.
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FOR those of us whose best friends are books, the penguin is a familiar and favourite animal. So far this would have applied to those who read for pleasure in English, but in April this year Penguin Books India took a significant step to reach out to other readers in the country by beginning publication in Hindi and unveiling plans to foray into Marathi and other Indian languages as well. Just as well, since 2005 marks the 70th anniversary of the Penguin Group, a publishing house that has become synonymous the world over with quality paperbacks. Though paperbacks existed before Allen Lane of Bristol, U.K., founded his paperback publishing business with the catchy symbol of the penguin in 1935, it was his conviction that the best literature should be available at affordable prices that catalysed the paperback industry.
Pocket power
To mark its 70th birthday, the group is bringing out 70 Pocket Penguins, representing the range of authors and genres it has offered readers over the past seven decades. Titles include Roald Dahl's A Taste of the Unexpected, Jorge Luis Borges' The Mirror of Ink, Niall Ferguson's 1914: Why the World Went to War, H.G. Wells' The Country of the Blind, Will Self's Design Faults in the Volvo 760 Turbo, John Updike's Three Trips, Gabriel García Márquez's Seventeen Poisoned Englishmen, P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and the Impending Doom, Evelyn Waugh's The Coronation of Haile Selassie and John Steinbeck's Murder, among others.
Allen Lane had to be an unusual man, considering the empire he founded and the lasting impression he made on the reading habits of the world. Fittingly, Penguin is bringing out a biography of the man said to have been inspired to start his new business when, at Exeter railway station returning from a visit to Agatha Christie, he could find no reading material beyond popular magazines and Victorian novels. Plenty of interesting history to be found in the pages of The Life and Times of Allen Lane.
More evidence of a man who could take on the world is provided in "Lady Chatterley's Trial", which contains the story of the furore created when Lane decided to publish D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover. The company was prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act. The trial was seminal in the history of literature since the issue of access was central to the arguments. It was not merely that Lawrence's choice of subject and treatment was considered obscene. By bringing it out as a Penguin paperback, the forbidden fruit was available to every other reader on the street!
But, Penguin books have been as notable for their content as for their striking covers. A pictorial history can be found in Penguin by Design: A Cover Story, 1935 - 2005 by Jeremy Lewis. In the U.K., the V&A museum, London, is hosting an exhibition of 500 book covers and drawing material from the company's archives, displayed for the first time. "In India," says Thomas Abraham, President, Penguin Books India, "we've just put out the books at a special price of 70p and will be holding some exhibitions across the country, beginning with a showcase at the Delhi Book Fair at the end of the month." Plans to bring the V&A exhibition to India at the end of the year-long celebrations are also underway.
With reading becoming a lifestyle statement in a country like India, one might wonder whether Lane's commitment to making good literature available to the common people at affordable prices continues to hold true. "I would think so," avers Abraham. "I would even go so far as to say that Penguin redefined consumer publishing in India in terms of both writing and the market." As for whether buying books is a bit of a luxury, he points out, "India has always been a low-priced market, but I do not think books are a luxury in terms of their pricing. Compare the prices of books to, say pizza, or a movie ticket. These have skyrocketed over the past seven years. But publishing has largely missed the bus where infusing books with consumerist appeal is concerned. Price points haven't changed much over the past five years. An average paperback still ranges between Rs.195 and 250. It's the market that's still somewhat niche, because buying literary books is still primarily an intellectual pursuit. But the good news is that there are signs of change: in reading habits, in discerning quality and in volumes."
As readership grows, so does the competition, but pioneers are not used to worrying. Admits Abraham, "I'm glad that more publishing houses have set up because this can only be good for the market."
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