Pan Books is a publishing
imprint
Imprint or imprinting may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series
* "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror''
* ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film
...
that first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the
British-based Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...
, owned by the
Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
.
Pan Books began as an independent publisher, established in 1944 by
Alan Bott
Captain Alan John Bott (14 January 1893 – 17 September 1952) was a World War I flying ace who was credited with five aerial victories. He later became a journalist, editor and publisher who founded Pan Books.Shores ''et.al.'' (1990), p.82.
...
, previously known for his memoirs of his experiences as a flying ace in the First World War. The Pan Books logo, showing the ancient Greek god
Pan playing pan-pipes, was designed by
Mervyn Peake
Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was an English writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the '' Gormenghast'' books. The four works were part of what Peake conceived ...
.
A few years after it was founded, Pan Books was bought out by a consortium of several publishing houses, including Macmillan,
Collins,
Heinemann Heinemann may refer to:
* Heinemann (surname)
* Heinemann (publisher), a publishing company
* Heinemann Park, a.k.a. Pelican Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
See also
* Heineman Heineman is a surname. Notable people with the surnam ...
, and, briefly,
Hodder & Stoughton. It became wholly owned by Macmillan in 1987.
Pan specialised in publishing paperback fiction and, along with
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.[Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., an ...]
, whose
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors hav ...
series first appeared in paperback in the UK as Pan titles. So too did
Leslie Charteris's books about
The Saint,
Peter O'Donnell
Peter O'Donnell (11 April 1920 – 3 May 2010) was an English writer of mysteries and of comic strips, best known as the creator of ''Modesty Blaise'', an action heroine/undercover trouble-shooter. He was also an award-winning gothic h ...
's ''
Modesty Blaise'', and numerous novels by
Edgar Wallace,
Agatha Christie,
Erle Stanley Gardner,
Peter Cheyney
Reginald Evelyn Peter Southouse-Cheyney (22 February 1896 – 26 June 1951) was a British crime fiction writer who flourished between 1936 and 1951. Cheyney is perhaps best known for his short stories and novels about agent/detective Lemmy Ca ...
,
Georgette Heyer,
Neville Shute
Nevil Shute Norway (17 January 189912 January 1960) was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and Nevil Shute as his pen name, in order to protect h ...
,
John Steinbeck,
Josephine Tey
Josephine Tey was a pseudonym used by Elizabeth MacKintosh (25 July 1896 – 13 February 1952), a Scottish author. Her novel '' The Daughter of Time'' was a detective work investigating the role of Richard III of England in the death of the Pr ...
and
Arthur Upfield. Pan also published paperback editions of works by classic authors such as
Jane Austen
Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
and
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
.
[The First Twenty Five Years of PAN Paperback Books: 1945 to 1970]
tikit.net. Retrieved 13 October 2017. Another notable title was ''
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' by
Douglas Adams.
During the 1950s and 1960s Pan Books editions were noted for their colourful covers, which have made many of them collectables, particularly the Fleming and Charteris novels.
[ Around 2,000 different pieces of cover artwork were commissioned between 1955 and 1965. Many of the artists remain largely unknown today. They include Rex Archer (1928–?), SR Boldero (1898–1987), Roger Hall, Edward Mortelmans, John Pollack (1918–1985), Sam Peffer, Dave Taylor (1921–1985) and Carl Wilton.Larkin, Colin. ''Cover Me. The Vintage Art of Pan Books: 1950-1965'' (2020)]
/ref>
The Pan imprint continues to publish a broad list of popular fiction and non-fiction. Among its current authors are Ken Follett
Kenneth Martin Follett, (born 5 June 1949) is a British author of thrillers and historical novels who has sold more than 160 million copies of his works.
Many of his books have achieved high ranking on best seller lists. For example, in the ...
, Kate Morton
Kate Morton (born 1976) is an Australian author. Morton has sold more than 16 million books in 42 countries, making her one of Australia's "biggest publishing exports". The author has written six novels: '' The House at Riverton'' (The Shifting ...
, Jeffrey Archer, Peter James, David Baldacci
David Baldacci (born August 5, 1960) is an American novelist. An attorney by education, Baldacci writes mainly suspense novels and legal thrillers.
Biography
Early life and education
David Baldacci was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. ...
, Joanna Trollope
Joanna Trollope (; born 9 December 1943) is an English writer. She has also written under the pseudonym of Caroline Harvey. Her novel ''Parson Harding's Daughter'' won in 1980 the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Ass ...
, C.J. Sansom, Scott Turow
Scott Frederick Turow (born April 12, 1949) is an American author and lawyer. Turow has written 13 fiction and three nonfiction books, which have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than 30 million copies. Turow’s novel ...
and Danielle Steel
Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel (born August 14, 1947) is an American writer, best known for her romance novels. She is the bestselling author alive and the fourth-bestselling fiction author of all time, with over 800 million ...
.[
]
References
{{Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group
Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom
Publishing companies based in London
Holtzbrinck Publishing Group
*