2018 Annual Seminar - Authors, Publishers, Serialisation, Readers - 5

The Open University History of Books and Reading (HOBAR) Research Group with the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London

2018 annual joint seminar series: ‘Authors, Publishers, Serialisation, Readers’

Serialisation has often been the neglected step-child of the publishing process, seen by many simply as a means to earn money rather than critical esteem, often viewed as a rapidly produced, provisional and ephemeral version rather than the definitive ‘book’ produced for posterity. Indeed, bibliographers, the trade in first editions and rare books, and public perceptions of cultural and material value have often lead us to think of authors only as authors of great books. But what of the highly productive work of publication in serial form? How did authors negotiate contracts for serialisation with their publishers? How did serialisation shape the perception of a literary work in the minds of readers? To what extent is serialisation the prime mode for readers’ engagement with texts? How has technology and the digital changed the dynamics of serialisation? This seminar series looks at the complex and productive relationship between authors, publishers and serialisation as a primary mode of reaching audiences from the 19th century to the present day. It also seeks to examine the phenomenon of ‘series, serials, and serialization’ more broadly. How did readers respond to the literary series, and in which reading environments were books in series consumed? What was the relationship between readers, periodicals, and their publishers?

Title:   Penguin Parade! Penguin Books and the Venture into Periodical Publishing

Speaker:   Samantha Rayner (University College London)

This session will explore how Penguin Books experimented with periodical publication of new writing in the late 1930s. The Penguin Parade series was the first real set of Penguin Periodicals, and the first volume, published in November 1937, was edited by Denys Kilham Roberts. With the onset of the war and the advent of Penguin New Writing in 1940 the series ended. The frequency which in 1938 produced three issues, gradually diminished to one per year. The series was restarted in 1947 under the editorship of J. E. Morpurgo. Despite a new cover, a new focus on critical and informative contributions, and the inclusion of photographs and colour plates, only three were produced. What impact did these two short-lived series have? What was their place in creating new spaces for writers in the pre- and post- Second World War period?

Samantha J. Rayner is a Reader in Publishing at UCL, where she is also Director of the Centre for Publishing. She teaches and writes on publishing and book related topics, with special interests in publishing archives and publishing paratexts, the culture of bookselling, editors and editing, and academic publishing. She has also taught extensively on English Literature courses and has specialisms in Medieval and Arthurian texts. She is Deputy Editor of the Journal for the International Arthurian Society, General Editor for a new series of publishing and book trade minigraphs with CUP, called Gatherings, and a member of the UCL Press Board. Part of her current research is investigating how Penguin Books made canonical texts accessible to the general reader: Penguin Parade was an intriguing find as part of that work.