Penguin Books

Ptarmigan Books - a little known imprint in the Penguin Books aviary of birds: bibliographic descriptions. Ptarmigan Books was just one of the many special series published by Penguin Books.
Hubert Phillips was the major influence in the Ptarmigan series, which reached only nine titles. As well as editing the series he was the author, or co-author, of all but one. In an eight-page self-advertising feature, the series is described as being 'designed to cover, as comprehensively as possible, the field of Games, Puzzles and Indoor Recreations'.

The visual aspect of Penguin Books is the most discussed factor of the publisher’s success, with discussion that Penguin books strongly resembled those of Albatross Publishing. Lane was open to admitting him inspiration from Albatross. Hans Schmoller stated “Allen Lane frequently stated in conversation that when he launched Penguin Books in 1935 he was trying to emulate the Albatross collection.

Louise Poland and Ivor Indyk. ‘Rejected by America? Some Tensions in Australian–American Literary Relations’ in Reading Across the Pacific: Australian–United States Intellectual Histories, Eds Robert Dixon and Nicholas Birns, (Sydney: University of Sydney Press, 2010): 309–322.
'This chapter focuses on the period from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s, a watershed period in Australia–US literary relations, which saw the publication in the US of Australian novelists Peter Carey, David Malouf, Jessica Anderson, Thea Astley, Elizabeth Jolley, Helen Garner, Tim Winton and Beverley Farmer among others, but which was also crossed by tensions and contradictions which led to confusion, disappointment, lost opportunities, and sometimes the outright rejection of important Australian authors and their books. Among these tensions, we look at three in particular: the promising but limited role played by the multinational publisher (in this case Penguin Books) offering Australian titles through its US affiliate (Viking Penguin); the intervention by literary agents in Australia - US literary publishing relations; and the difference in values between the two cultures, which served to hinder the appreciation of important works of Australian writing.' (p. 309)

This article focuses directly on Thea Astley’s publishing history from the time of her involvement with Brisbane’s avant garde in the 1950s, her early inclusion in regional collections, and her emergence as a Miles Franklin prize-winning author, through the enabling pen and advocacy of one of Angus & Robertson (A&R)’s finest fiction editors, Beatrice Davis, to the establishment in the 1980s of Astley’s ultimate author-publisher relationship with Penguin Books and her own overseas literary agent. It will also examine the publishing trajectory of selected novels released and re-issued by the University of Queensland Press (UQP) and Penguin Books, and revisit the divides between writer and editor, publisher and publicist, and the dis/enabling inspiration of difference in the tropics, in the context of the gendered histories of publishing at A&R, Penguin Books and UQP.