Pelican Books was established in 1937 as a non-fiction imprint for low-cost intellectual paperbacks. Founder Allen Lane wrote, ‘We… believed in the existence in this country of a vast reading public for intelligent books at a low price, and staked everything on it.’ Pelican lowered the traditional barriers to knowledge by selling books at the cost of a packet of cigarettes. These books became especially popular among the self-educating post-war generation, and Pelican was even called an ‘informal university for '50s Britons’ by "The Guardian". "The Spectator" reported, ‘If there is any sense in saying that the culture of the world should be accessible to all without distinctions of wealth, such publications are helping to make it true.’