Un libro decente para leer

“Not too much to ask, is it? It was in 1935 when Allen Lane, Managing Director of Bodley Head Publishers, stood on a platform at Exeter railway station looking for something good to read on his journey back to London. His choice was limited to popular magazines and poor-quality paperbacks – the same choice faced every day by the vast majority of readers, few of whom could afford hardback. Lane’s disappointment and subsequent anger at the range of books generally available led him to found a company – and change the world.

‘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’

Sir Allan Lane, 1902-1970, founder of Penguin Books.

The quality paperback had arrived – and not just in bookshops. Lane was adamant that his Penguins should appear in chain stores and tobacconists, and should cost no more than a packet of cigarettes.

Reading habits (and cigarettes prices) have changed since 1935, but Penguin still believes in publishing the best books for everybody to enjoy. We still believe that good design costs no more than bad design, and we still believe that quality books published passionately and responsibly make the world a better place.

So wherever you see the little bird – whether it’s on a piece of prize-winning literary fiction or a celebrity autobiography, political tour de force or historical masterpiece, a serial-killer thriller, reference book, world classic or a piece or pure escapism – you can bet that it represents the very best that the genre has to offer.

Whatever you like to read – trust Penguin.”

En este texto no lo dice, pero en la página oficial de Penguin sí se expresa cuál era el motivo de que Allan Lane estuviera ese día en Exeter.

Había ido a visitar a Agatha Christie.

Créditos:

Transcripción del texto (incuidos los pingüinos) de la última página de la edición de The 39 steps, de John Buchan, realizada por Penguin Books como Pocket Penguin Classic, en 2011, de la biblioteca del autor.

Fotografía de la fachada exterior de la Exeter Central Station, en julio de 2013, del autor.

Fotografía de Agatha Christie, en 1926 (año de los famosos once días), de Bettmann/Corbis, tomada de la noticia publicada en El Mundo el 7 de diciembre de 2007, de la hemeroteca del autor.