This beauty came my way a couple of days back. 1948, First Edition, Printed in Great Britain.

Pelican Books, a non-fiction imprint of Penguin Books, was founded by Allen Lane and V. K. Krishna Menon. Does the second name ring bells! Yes, the very same Krishna Menon who was an important figure in the Indian independence struggle and who was the first Union Home Minister of Independent India. Krishna Menon served as the founding editor of Pelican between 1936 to 1938 . To begin with Pelican published inexpensive paperbacks of academic nature intended to reach a wider audience of ‘intellectuals’. The imprint stopped publication in 1984 and was relaunched in April 2014.Since its discontinuation in 1984, Pelican original books have continued to be collected worldwide and prized for their iconic bright blue covers (three bands) and the Pelican bird colophon.Until the introduction of the ISBN, the series used an “A” prefix on the spines and on the front cover under the title of the book (see this cover with the number A 178). In the Pelican Main Series 500 books were published between 1937 and 1984. These were numbered A1 to A500. The first title in the Pelican A series was The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism by Bernard Shaw which was followed by The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism and Fascism, Volume 1 and 2 with the author’s name as George Bernard Shaw. From 1938 to 1940, a few books were published in the series Penguin Specials (thus given numbers starting with ‘S’). These were given blue covers and labelled as Pelican Specials. The first was Arnold Haskell, Ballet (S5, July 1938; in 1945 reissued as a Pelican, A122). Some of the Pelican First Editions are listed under the category of ‘Rare Books’. In its prime an edition of 50,000 (fifty thousand) was the norm for Pelican paperbacks and would often go for a reprint of the same quantity in less than six months (marketing executives and publicists of 21st century please read this again). In 1940 a book on town planning sold 2,50,000 copies (a quarter-of-a-million copies). Originally this copy was priced at 8d (80 cents), it was sold in India for 6 Annas, as stamped on the cover. Other than the partially taped cover its overall condition is good.

Purchased June 2023.