Hello and welcome to my site!

My name is Ramon Schenk and I am a Dutch collector of books, in particular any publications by the British publisher Penguin.

I have collected Penguin publications for many years and have now accumulated thousands of their books.

Most Penguin books I only want one edition of, but of some, such as W.Somerset Maugham, Joseph Conrad, C.S. Forester, E.M. Forster, C.P. Snow, H.G. Wells and others, I want to own a copy of every edition the publisher ever brought out. Well, at least until into the nineties, that is!

Why? Well, besides being very easy to read because of size and typography, Penguins also show the reader an evolution. Through the decades since Penguin was founded in 1935, the design of Penguins has changed with the times, illustrating prevaling tastes and distastes of the periods. Furthermore, for decades, the reading public could depend on Penguin: if it was published by Penguin or Pelican, it couldn't be bad!
And let us not forget the social impact Penguins had on hundreds of thousands of people. Until they were published, there was no publisher bringing affordable, high-quality books that could be afforded by the working class of Britain and beyond.

Please use the menu on the left to take a look at the various parts on the site.

Enjoy!

PS Want to discuss reading and/or collecting Penguins? Join my Penguin Yahoo Group by filling in your email address below.