Penguin celebrates 75 years

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Publisher Penguin is celebrating 75 years in the business. On a 75th birthday website launched Monday, readers can enter a contest to win 75 Penguin books, preview a new book about Penguin’s iconic book design, and check the schedule of the national book tour with the Penguin Mini Cooper.

For the tour, Penguin is bringing out some of its bestselling authors, including Michael “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” Pollan, Garrison “Lake Wobegone” Keillor and Sue Monk Kidd, author of “The Secret Life of Bees.” Exactly who will be showing up at Vroman’s on June 30 has not yet been announced.

Although its signature color is orange, Penguin, like many companies these days, will be emphasizing how green it is. Two years ago it began its support of the Nature Conservancy’s campaign to plant a billion trees in Brazil’s Atlantic forest, and the publisher promises to spread word about the Nature Conservancy’s work on its tour.

At each stop, Penguin will be donating its designated set of 75 books to a library or local organization. At the end of the tour, it will auction off the Mini Cooper with proceeds going to the New York Public Library, which just like the Los Angeles Public Library, is facing drastic cuts.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

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