Penguin Books - War Years

War Years

The Second World War saw the company established as a national institution, though it had no formal role, Penguin was integral to war effort thanks in no small part to the publication of bestselling manuals Keeping Poultry and Rabbits on Scraps and Aircraft Recognition and supplying books for the services and POWs. Penguin printed some 600 titles and started nineteen new series in the six years of the war and a time of enormous increase in the demand for books, consequently Penguin enjoyed a privileged place amongst its peers.

Paper rationing was the besetting problem of publishers during war-time with the fall of France cutting off supply of esparto grass, one of the constituents of the pulp Penguin used. As such when rationing was introduced in March 1940 a quota was allocated by the Ministry of Supply to each published as a percentage of the amount used by that firm between August 1938 and August 1939. This was particularly advantageous to Penguin who as a volume printer had enjoyed a very successful year that year. Further in a deal with the Canadian Government Penguin had agreed to exclusively publish editions for their armed forces for which they were paid in tons of paper. By January 1942 the Book Production War Economy Agreement regulations came into force which determined rules on paper quality, type size and margins, consequently Penguin eliminated their dust jackets, trimmed their margins and replaced sewn bindings with metal staples. Aside from the noticeable deterioration in the appearance of paperbacks it became a practical impossibility to publish books of more than 256 pages resulting in some titles falling out of print for want of material. In addition to their paper allocation Penguin secured a deal in late 1941, through Bill William's connections with ABCA and CEMA, with the War Office to supply the troops with books through what would be known as the Forces Book Club. Penguin would receive 60 tons a month from Paper Supply in return for 10 titles a month in runs of 75,000 at 5d. Previously every paperback carried the message "FOR THE FORCES Leave this book at a Post Office when you have read it, so that men and women in the Services may enjoy it too" at the bottom of the back cover inviting the reader to take advantage of the free transmission of books to the forces by the Post Office. However demand was exceeding supply on the home front leading Lane to seek a monopoly on army books made specifically for overseas distribution. This dominance over the paper supply put Penguin in an especially strong position after the war as rationing continued, many of its competitors were forced to concede paperback reprint rights to Penguin for this reason as well as the popular prestige the company enjoyed.