Hello friends,
Today I would like to take a moment to celebrate a very niche mini-holiday, but one that is rather close to the heart of librarians and library patrons — July 30th is Paperback Book Day!
What, exactly, is that celebrating? Well, that’s the part that gets rather fun. Allow me to jump back in time a little. In the 1930s, British publisher Allen Lane was, understandably, worried about the way the Great Depression was affecting books sales and the publishing industry at large. While the details here vary from telling to telling, the story goes that he spent a weekend visiting with Agatha Christie, and on the train journey between Exeter and London realized that the thing a train passenger really needs is a book. He saw people at the train stations having access to things like tea and tobacco, and thought: there should also be books available for the same price or less. Brilliant man, that Allen Lane.
So, he set out to establish an imprint that would do exactly that. He set the price for his paperbacks at two and a half pence — the price of ten cigarettes — and launched Penguin Books (you may have heard of them) on July 30th, 1935.
The original ten titles put out by Penguin were an interesting mix. There are some familiar staples (Agatha Christie, Ernest Hemmingway, and Dorothy Sayers make an appearance), and some that have since fallen from popularity (I don’t know many people who have read Ariel by André Maurois), but it was the very idea that changed the face of publishing. Paperbacks, as a type of book, were not a new concept. Basically, as long as there has been typesetting, there has been some form of paperback book, and they did have the start of a boom in the 18th and 19th centuries. But codifying the idea that you could mass produce copies of literature for wide consumption, and make them available to a broader portion of the population rather than a rarified literary world, was hugely important. Allen Lane set out to ensure that his paperbacks were sold at train stations, tobacconists, department stores, and all the places that regular, working people were likely to have access to them.
It was, at the time, a huge financial risk — Penguin had to sell at least 17,000 copies of each book just to break even — but it certainly paid off. Other publishers soon saw the value in printing paperbacks, and in broadening their readership. During the Second World War, America formed the Council on Books in Wartime, an organization formed of librarians, booksellers, publishers, authors, and critics with the sole intention of producing paperback books that they freely distributed to members of the US Armed forces. The books were designed specifically to fit in the pockets of uniforms, so they could be carried with soldiers wherever they went. The Armed Services Editions were meant to offer comfort and entertainment, and also to show the US taking a stand against Nazi book burnings. Over 122 million paperbacks made their way to soldiers doing the war, and helped cement the legacy of titles like The Great Gatsby and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
So, in celebration of all the people who have championed the idea that everyone should have access to books (a stance libraries wholeheartedly share), allow me to encourage you to grab a paperback today. Whether it’s from your shelves, our shelves, or one of the local bookstores, you will be in fine historical company. Happy reading!
Cheers,
Meghan
Meghan Hawkes
Communications Director
Skidompha Public Library