Pan Books is a British publishing
imprint 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 in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be on ...
, owned by the
Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
.
History
Pan Books began as an independent publisher, established in 1944 by
Alan Bott, 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. The later version was by Edward Young who also designed the logo for Penguin.
A few years after it was founded, Pan Books was bought out by a consortium of several publishing houses, including Macmillan,
Collins,
Heinemann, 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 Limited is a Germany, German-owned English 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 ...
, was one of the first popular publishers of this format in the UK. Many popular authors saw their works given paperback publication through Pan, including
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer, 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., and his ...
, whose
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
series first appeared in paperback in the UK as Pan titles. So too did
Leslie Charteris's books about
The Saint,
Peter O'Donnell's ''
Modesty Blaise'', and novels by
Edgar Wallace
Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 – 10 February 1932) was a British writer of crime and adventure fiction.
Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at the age of 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was ...
,
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English people, English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving ...
,
Erle Stanley Gardner,
Peter Cheyney,
Georgette Heyer,
Neville Shute,
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck ( ; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social percep ...
,
Josephine Tey 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 #List of works, her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century ...
and
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...
.
[The First Twenty Five Years of PAN Paperback Books: 1945 to 1970]
tikit.net. Retrieved 13 October 2017. Another notable title published by Pan was ''
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' is a Science fiction comedy, comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series), radio sitcom broadcast over two series on BBC ...
'' by
Douglas Adams.
During the 1950s and 60s, 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 by Pan between 1955 and 1965. Many of these 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 nonfiction. Among its current authors are Ken Follett, Kate Morton, Jeffrey Archer
Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English novelist and former politician. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Louth (Lincolnshire) from 1969 to 1974, but did not seek re-election after a fina ...
, Peter James, David Baldacci, Joanna Trollope, C.J. Sansom, Scott Turow
Scott Frederick Turow (born April 12, 1949) is an American author and lawyer. Turow worked as a lawyer for a decade before writing full-time, and has written 13 fiction and three nonfiction books, which have been translated into more than 40 la ...
, and Danielle Steel.[
]
References
External links
*
TiKiT: Complete Pan history and bibliography
Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom
Publishing companies based in London
Holtzbrinck Publishing Group
*
British companies established in 1944
1944 establishments in England
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