The Playboy Pocket Books

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75049

I can find very little information on the internet relating to when, exactly, Hugh Hefner's Playboy Press began printing books. Graham Holroyd, in his Price Guide, starts listing printing dates with 1970. I have found numerous volumes, from mass market sized books to oversized softcover issues, with copyright dates that go back to about 1963. But I don't think Playboy became a serious player in the book industry until later in the 60's decade. See two pages of Playboy paperback covers on the BookScans website HERE (click the "NEXT" prompt at the bottom of that page for more).

In the mid-60's, Pocket Book printed a half dozen books that included both their own colophon and Playboy's on the covers. They all contained reprinted content from Playboy magazine. I'm not sure if Pocket sought out that business, or whether Playboy was simply outsourcing their book printing until they could gear up to do it themselves.

These scans are courtesy of Brian Maginnity.