Friday 3 May 2013

Australian Penguins- Starting on the List

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AU 15
Anybody who follows anything I do in life knows much of it centres around collecting Vintage Penguin Books.  My main aim is to complete as comprehensive a list of these books in the various series.  It is a lifelong project but if I manage to keep them out of landfill for yet some time I will be happy. 
Today I'd like to share the Australian published Penguins I own.  At first I didn't take much notice of them but then when I realised I kept finding books in the tip shop which is the main entrance to landfill I started picking them up.

Gathering these books is like walking along a country lane picking up stray kittens. They all get home, some I find other homes for but most of them I keep.  It's when I look at them really hard, meet their author descriptions and admire their covers that make me name them (catalogue onto The Library Thing) and give them permanent homes until one of us becomes too foxed or tattered to go on.

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One of the interesting things about the Oz Penguin books that I have observed is that they are not in a simple list such as the main series of the orange, green, blue, green, yellow, red and grey Penguins, all neatly colour coded into their various genres.

Instead it is as if the publishers of the day decided around a table as if to say, "Okay we need some Australian Penguins and Australia having been the poor relatives of England for so many years - We're over that now you know) thought ...An Australian Pelican, An Australian Poets Book, An Australian Song Book, An Australian  Fiction title, An Australian Penguin Play Book. All of this equals the Australian series.

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Although I am certain to have a more comprehensive list of all of the Australian Penguins that were published somewhere in my files,  I am printing only the ones I currently own at this time. So far all of them are first published ones with the exception of one and no doubt I'll replace that copy one of these days.

I'm going to post up the Australian Penguin list on my blog through a link below and continue to add them as I find them.  It is always a lot of fun to be in an op shop or even a lovely second hand book shop and see the little label on the spine AU with a number surrounded by the Aussie boomerang.

Hopefully I will continue to add to this collection and the information about it as I go.

If anyone knows of additional titles of these books please let me know and I will add the information to the list. This will no doubt continue to be a work in progress.  Enjoy the diversity that yet again encompasses these lovely publications in so many ways.
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My list of Australian Books can be seen here

2 comments:

  1. Pam, I have a few of the others which you can add to your list. They are displayed at http://vintagepenguins.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/some-of-australian-penguin-books.html

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  2. Thank you Karyn. Someone else sent me the same list too. I appreciate your input.

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