Consonant with Penguin's corporate mission to bring canonical literature to the mass market the company first ventured into publishing the classics in May 1938 with the issue of "Penguin Illustrated Classics". The savings from the author's rights on these royalty free titles were instead invested in commissioning woodcut engravings from Robert Gibbings and his circle emanating from the Central School of Arts and Crafts. The books were distinct from the rest of the Penguin marque in their use of a vertical grid (anticipating Tschichold's innovation of 1951) and albertus typeface. The series was not a financial success and the list ceased after just ten volumes the same year it began. Penguin returned to classics with the printing of E. V. Rieu's translation of Homer's "Odyssey" in 1946, which went on to sell three million copies.