2011 was the 50th anniversary
of Penguin Modern Classics

Penguin Modern Classics began in 1961...Read on to find out more about the history and download the Penguin Modern Classics Catalogue.

To celebrate our 50th anniversary we've published 50 Mini Modern Classics.

Buy the Top 20 Editor's Picks - get 30% OFF!

Penguin Modern Classics

Modern Classics Postcards,
One Hundred Writers in One Box

Desirable and collectable, Postcards from Penguin Modern Classics features memorable and iconic photographs of the greatest writers of the last century, and celebrates the Penguin Modern Classics list, which has been shaping the reading habits of entire generations since 1961.

View more Penguin Postcard collections.

Penguin Classics Postcards

Videos

Making the Mini Modern Classics -
Part 4: Picture Research

Here's the fourth part of our series on the making of the Penguin Mini Modern Classics. This time: the Picture Researcher, responsible for the main image on the jackets of the books, discusses the changing fashion of author poses over time and the importance of great author pictures by great photographers.

Making the Mini Modern Classics -
Part 5: Copywriting

Here's the fifth part of our series on the making of the Penguin Mini Modern Classics. This time: the Copywriter, who must read each of the fifty books and communicate all that is wonderful about such different works to our readers. So now you know who writes the back of the books...

Posters

Carson McCullers

If you're taken with the look of our silver Mini Modern Classics, why not treat yourself to one of our beautiful Modern Classics posters?

Choose between Albert Camus or Carson McCullers on one side, and a striking grid of every title in the series on the reverse. Measuring A2 in size, this poster is a design classic of its own, and will be a literary treat for any unlettered wall.

Bestsellers

Our Top 5 Bestselling Mini Modern Classics.

The Design Story of Modern Classics

1961 - 1965

From the very beginning the Modern Classics used striking and evocative imagery. The first books had a design by Hans Schmoller, featuring Eric Gill's Joanna typeface.

» Tender is the Night

1965 - 1989

Later the grid designed by Romek Marber for Penguin's crime books was introduced to the Modern Classics. The typeface remained Joanna at first, but eventually Helvetica was introduced to the series.

» Goodbye To All That

1989 - 2000

For a time beginning in the late 8Os the series was called Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics, with a design that kept the author and title information in a panel, and set them in Sabon, a typeface designed by earlier Penguin design legend Jan Tschihold.

» Nineteen Eighty-Four

2000 - 2007

A cover template by Jamie Keenan was introduced in 2OOO that cons-trained the type to a bar at the bottom of the cover. This allowed the imagery to be large and unobscured.

» Of Mice and Men

2007- present

And in 2OO7 the series was redesigned again with the current grid by Penguin Art Director Jim Stoddart, which put big, bold text over the image itself and is now the basis for the design of the mini Modern Classics.

» The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman