Pelican Books

• Illustration — Spines of miscellaneous Pelican books. Smaller-format (11.2×18.1 mm) Pelicans are very roughly arranged in chronological order; they include two "Pelican Specials". Among the larger-format (13×20 mm) Pelicans is a hardback (George Henderson's Gothic). (At 16.3×23.6 mm, Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh's The Mathematical Experience was too large to fit this shelf.) Pelican Books was established in 1937 as a non-fiction imprint for low-cost intellectual paperbacks. Co-founder Allen Lane wrote, ‘We… believed in the existence in this country of a vast reading public for intelligent books at a low price, and staked everything on it.’ Pelican lowered the traditional barriers to knowledge by selling books at the cost of a packet of cigarettes. In 1938, The Spectator reported, 'If there is any sense in saying that the culture of the world should be accessible to all without distinctions of wealth, such publications are helping to make it true.' These books became especially popular among the self-educating post-war generation, and Pelican was even called an ‘informal university for '50s Britons’ by The Guardian. For their first few decades, each regular Pelican was given a number starting "A". "A1" and "A2" were the two volumes of George Bernard Shaw’s newly augmented The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism and Fascism; however, these were just two of nine volumes published in May 1937, the others being Olaf Stapledon, Last and First Men (the only work of fiction published under Pelican); Leonard Woolley, Digging up the Past; H. G. Wells, A Short History of the World (previously published as a Penguin); G. D. H. Cole, Practical Economics; Julian Huxley, Essays in Popular Science; Bonamy Dobrée and G. E. Manwaring, The Floating Republic; Élie Halévy, A History of the English People in 1815, vol. 1. Pelican published many of the major intellects of the 20th century including historian Eric Hobsbawm, literary critic Boris Ford, philosopher A. J. Ayer, and journalist Jacob Bronowski. Other classic Pelican books included Totem and Taboo, The Eighteen Nineties, An Introduction to Modern Architecture, Coming of Age in Samoa, Pelican History of England, The Pelican Guide to English Literature, and Childhood in Society. Pelican’s early supporters included George Orwell, H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, and J. B. Priestley. The imprint published books on thousands of subjects and became a global phenomenon. The series sold over 250 million copies worldwide over its nearly 50 years. Although Pelican was discontinued in 1984, the original books continue to be collected worldwide and prized for their iconic bright blue covers.