"This week 75 years ago, Penguin brought out the first modern paperback," reports the Read Street blog (Baltimore Sun, 7-29-10). Penguin's first paperbacks were works by Ernest Hemingway, André Maurois and Agatha Christie. "They were colour coded (orange for fiction, blue for biography, green for crime) and cost just sixpence, the same price as a packet of cigarettes," reports Penguin's company history. "The way the public thought about books changed forever - the paperback revolution had begun."
(Only cheap paperbacks were available in 1935--poorly produced and not the best quality in content, either).
(Only cheap paperbacks were available in 1935--poorly produced and not the best quality in content, either).