Penguin Books

Penguin Books - Quiz

1. What status did Penguin Books achieve during the Second World War?

A) A bankrupt entity
B) An official government department
C) A national institution
D) A forbidden publishing house

2. Which of these titles was a bestselling manual published by Penguin during the war?

A) Rations and Survival
B) Keeping Poultry and Rabbits on Scraps
C) Victory in the Skies
D) The Soldier's Handbook

3. What caused the disruption of the supply of esparto grass, used in Penguin's pulp?

A) A labor strike in Britain
B) The Fall of France
C) The sinking of merchant ships
D) The invasion of Canada

4. When was paper rationing introduced in Britain?

A) March 1940
B) September 1939
C) January 1942
D) August 1938

5. How did Penguin acquire paper through a deal with the Canadian Government?

A) By publishing exclusive editions for the Canadian armed forces
B) By importing wood pulp directly
C) By trading books for food
D) By buying surplus government stockpiles

6. What happened to Penguin's book bindings under the 1942 regulations?

A) They were reinforced with leather
B) They were glue-bound with plastic
C) They were replaced with metal staples
D) They were abandoned entirely

7. What was the maximum page limit effectively imposed by the 1942 war economy regulations?

A) 500 pages
B) 100 pages
C) 256 pages
D) 150 pages

8. Who helped Penguin secure a deal with the War Office in 1941?

A) Bill Williams
B) Lane's business partner
C) The Minister of Supply
D) The Canadian Prime Minister

9. What was the name of the program that supplied books to troops?

A) Troop Reading Initiative
B) Services Library Project
C) Forces Book Club
D) The War Reader's Association

10. Where were readers invited to leave their read paperbacks for the forces?

A) A local library
B) A train station
C) A military recruitment center
D) A Post Office

11. How much paper did Penguin receive per month under the War Office deal?

A) 25 tons
B) 100 tons
C) 10 tons
D) 60 tons

12. What design feature did Penguin eliminate to comply with war economy regulations?

A) Author biographies
B) Table of contents
C) Dust jackets
D) Color illustrations

13. Why were Penguin's competitors forced to concede paperback reprint rights to Penguin?

A) Because the government mandated it
B) Because of Penguin's established paper supply and prestige
C) Because Penguin bought them out
D) Because they went out of business

14. How many titles did Penguin print during the war years?

A) About 50
B) About 600
C) About 1,000
D) About 200

15. What was the primary basis for the government's paper quota for publishers?

A) The number of titles published in 1940
B) The number of employees in the firm
C) The amount of paper used between August 1938 and August 1939
D) The annual profit of the publisher

16. In what year was Penguin Books co-founded?

A) 1945
B) 1935
C) 1932
D) 1939

17. What was the original price of the first Penguin paperbacks?

A) Five pence
B) One shilling
C) Sixpence
D) Tenpence

18. What company was Penguin originally an imprint of?

A) The Bodley Head
B) Pearson plc
C) Bertelsmann
D) Random House

19. Who suggested the penguin as the company mascot?

A) Eunice Frost
B) Edward Young
C) Allen Lane
D) Joan Coles

20. Which retail chain's purchase of 63,000 books helped launch Penguin as a separate business?

A) The Bodley Head
B) Harrods
C) Woolworths
D) W. H. Smith

21. When did Penguin become a separate company?

A) 1935
B) 1937
C) 1936
D) 1939

22. Who currently owns Penguin Random House?

A) Pearson plc
B) Allen Lane's estate
C) The Bodley Head
D) Bertelsmann

23. What was the name of the series introduced in 1939 that was cloth-bound?

A) Penguin Specials
B) The Pelican History of Art
C) The Penguin Shakespeare
D) King Penguin

24. What typeface was used for the author and title in the original design?

A) Helvetica
B) Gill Sans
C) Times New Roman
D) Arial

25. Who created the original Penguin logo?

A) Eunice Frost
B) Joan Coles
C) Edward Young
D) Allen Lane

26. How much of a stake did Pearson plc hold in Penguin Random House when it was formed?

A) 100 per cent
B) 50 per cent
C) 47 per cent
D) 25 per cent

27. Who was the vice president who led the success of Penguin Books Inc in the US?

A) Edward Young
B) Allen Lane
C) Kurt Enoch
D) Ian Ballantine

28. In what year did Penguin Random House become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bertelsmann?

A) 1936
B) 2020
C) 2017
D) 2013

29. Which person was entrusted with the reconstruction of Penguin Inc in 1945?

A) Ian Ballantine
B) Allen Lane
C) Eunice Frost
D) Kurt Enoch

30. Which railway station inspired Allen Lane to create cheap, quality books?

A) Victoria
B) Paddington
C) Marylebone
D) Exeter St Davids

31. What is the name of the group of the five largest English-language publishers?

A) The Penguin Group
B) The Publishing Giants
C) The Elite Five
D) The Big Five

32. In what year did Penguin launch the Penguin Classics branch?

A) 1960
B) 1945
C) 1961
D) 1947

33. Who translated Homer's Odyssey for the first Penguin Classics book?

A) E. V. Rieu
B) Hans Schmoller
C) Allen Lane
D) Jan Tschichold

34. Which German typographer redesigned 500 Penguin books between 1947 and 1949?

A) Germano Facetti
B) Tony Godwin
C) Romek Marber
D) Jan Tschichold

35. Who was Jan Tschichold's eventual successor at Penguin?

A) Tony Godwin
B) Germano Facetti
C) Harry F. Paroissien
D) Hans Schmoller

36. In which city did Harry F. Paroissien establish Penguin Books in the United States?

A) New York
B) Chicago
C) London
D) Baltimore

37. In what year did Penguin become a publicly listed company on the London Stock Exchange?

A) 1961
B) 1945
C) 1949
D) 1960

38. Who was appointed as editorial adviser at Penguin in May 1960?

A) Tony Godwin
B) Germano Facetti
C) Allen Lane
D) E. V. Rieu

39. Who did Tony Godwin hire in January 1961 to alter the appearance of Penguin books?

A) Romek Marber
B) Jan Tschichold
C) Germano Facetti
D) Hans Schmoller

40. Which designer suggested the layout that became known as the Marber grid?

A) Germano Facetti
B) Tony Godwin
C) Jan Tschichold
D) Romek Marber

41. Which book's publication in 1960 helped boost Penguin's notoriety?

A) Homer's Odyssey
B) Inside Linda Lovelace
C) The Pelican History of Art
D) Lady Chatterley's Lover

42. In what year was the censorship of the written word finally defeated in the UK?

A) 1949
B) 1960
C) 1961
D) 1978

43. Which company was a main competitor to Penguin in the UK paperback industry during the 1950s?

A) Homer Publishing
B) Pan Books
C) Penguin Education
D) The Pelican History

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